2023: away with the old, in with the new?

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Chris Whitehouse, policy advisor and expert on medical technology policy and regulation at Whitehouse Communications, president of the Urology Trade Association, updates readers on recent key announcements impacting the UK medical technology sector.

Workforce challenges, emergency departments and record wait times put patients at serious risk. It may be a new year, but the same old problems persist for the healthcare sector.

With experts warning in recent days that the pressure on the NHS is intolerable and unsustainable, the government is facing growing demands to address the ongoing crisis. However, with the prime minister and health secretary both adamant that the health service has the funding it needs, can part of the solution be found in regulatory reform and adopting new and innovative ways of thinking?

That was the tone behind Sunak’s New Year’s speech, who acknowledged the current pressures but admitted the system must change. Since my last article in early December, the government has made a number of important announcements, collectively demonstrating its firm commitment to fostering innovation and regulatory reform to make the UK a world leader in life sciences.

On 18 December, the Chancellor announced the appointment of five leading industry experts from five high-potential sectors: digital technology, green industries, life sciences, advanced manufacturing and creative industries to accelerate the development and diffusion of technology in the UK United. The announcement builds on the Autumn Declaration’s commitment to reform EU law on digital technology. Industry experts are:

Matt Clifford, chairman, Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) Priya Lakhani OBE, founder and CEO of Century Tech, and AI Council member Sir John Bell, immunologist and regius professor of medicine and Oxford University Camilla Fleetcroft, deputy -chairman of clinical and regulatory affairs at Eclevar UK and former interim deputy director of innovative devices at the Medicines and Healthcare products Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA) Jane Toogood, managing director of Catalyst Technologies at Johnson Matthey, a specialty chemicals and technologies company sustainable

These individuals will support Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief science adviser and national technology adviser, whose job it is to ensure that optimal policies are in place to encourage competition and innovation. The Treasury’s decision to oversee this review is significant in itself: if the government is to reap the full rewards of innovation adoption, a cross-departmental approach will be key going forward.

Further indicative of the government’s commitment to supporting emerging health technologies, it was announced on 19 December that the MHRA has received nearly £1 million in funding through the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) Regulators Pioneer Fund for three new projects designed to accelerate scientific and digital innovation and ultimately improve patient health and health service outcomes.

This same motivation is behind Wellcome’s recent decision to also award the MHRA and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) 1.8 million in funding to explore and produce guidance on regulating digital tools for mental health . The project is in its early stages, but with technology increasingly transforming the way we manage our health, as evidenced by the spike in NHS app downloads, we can expect real progress in 2023.

Election time and tide are against the prime minister and his government. The next general election will be held within two years, so Rishi Sunak faces a monumental task to resolve the dire situation engulfing the country and regain the trust of the voters. Innovation in policy, practice and technology can help bring about the changes that are a prerequisite to any realistic prospect of electoral success.

Questions or comments about this article should be directed to the author [email protected].

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