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Life Sciences Council Joint Statement on a new agreement to accelerate the delivery of the future UK HealthTech regulatory system.
The reform of the UK’s Medical Device regulation offers a golden opportunity to drive innovation and growth in the UK’s Life Science sector while ensuring patient safety remains at the heart of the regulatory approach, but there is an urgent need for action to ensure we do not lose this opportunity.
Senior members of the Life Sciences Council, Will Quince MP, Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Care, Dr June Raine, CEO, Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Peter Ellingworth, CEO, Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI) have today announced a new agreement to accelerate the delivery of the future UK HealthTech regulatory system. Acknowledging the Chancellor’s priorities of stability and growth supported by regulatory reforms, and the importance of the success of the system to UK patients and the Life Science sector, they have formed an advisory group on behalf of the Life Sciences Council to drive the delivery of the ambition of the Life Sciences Vision to have a best in class regulatory system.
Read more: Life Sciences Council Joint Statement on Medical Devices Regulatory Reform
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A world-leading fibre optic laser therapy will be rolled out by the NHS for people suffering with epilepsy - who have not responded well to other forms of treatment.
Offering hope to thousands of current and future NHS patients, the cutting-edge laser treatment, targets the part of the brain that is causing the seizures without the need for invasive surgery. A nationwide first, the treatment will benefit up to 150 NHS patients every year with the first surgeries set to take place in early 2023.
The laser requires just a 1.5mm-wide probe into the skull with the fibre optic laser at the tip of the probe reaching and destroying the epilepsy-causing brain tissue from the inside by heating it. Carried out in an MRI scanner, the clinical team accurately navigate through the brain avoiding blood vessels and other critical structures, and can monitor the temperature of the surrounding areas to ensure healthy brain tissue does not overheat. The small wound heals quickly meaning patients can go home the next day with minimal risk of infection or other side effects and can return to their usual work and activities within a week.
Read more: NHS launches laser beam brain surgery to treat epilepsy
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To support the NHS during this period of sustained significant pressure, The NHS has taken action to boost capacity ahead of winter. Recognising the fundamental importance of primary care in underpinning NHS services, a critical part of this plan is to increase capacity outside of acute trusts, which includes the scaling up of additional roles in primary care, increasing the flexibility for primary care networks (PCNs) to do this, and taking further action to support general practice.
To enable this, the NHS are taking several steps over the next few weeks to support the expansion of general practice capacity and reduce both workload and administrative burden. The measures will help general practice focus on access pressures and facilitate system collaboration, working with local providers to manage urgent demand and help address workload challenges.
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Almost three-quarters of medtech companies in the UK and Ireland (74%) struggle to make their data compliant with the interoperability requirements of healthcare IT systems, new research by InterSystems suggests.
Healthcare Services and Solutions that connect, interoperate, and automate across people, processes, systems and data sources.
In-house skills shortages are revealed to be the biggest difficulty with interoperability for more than a third of the 100 medtech companies surveyed (35%). Almost one-in-four respondents (38%) say achieving interoperability cost-effectively is one of the severest barriers to the growth of their business. Nearly half (47%) say frequent changes to data standards cause them significant problems.
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NHS cancer patients will be the first in the world to benefit from chemotherapy delivered by drone as part of a new trial, NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard has announced. The drones, set to make their first flight in the coming weeks, will mean that the lifesaving treatment can be picked up and dropped to patients on the same day.
Announcing the major trial, NHS chief executive Amanda Pritchard said the drone deliveries were just the latest “extraordinary” instalment in another year that has showcased NHS innovation and cutting-edge technology. In a first of its kind trial, starting on the Isle of Wight, chemo will be flown directly from the pharmacy at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust to St Mary’s Hospital, where staff will collect it before distributing it to hospital teams and patients.
