Driving innovation into the hands of health practitioners

Lymphoma Action’s Policy and Affairs Advisor is in conversation with Helen Knight, Director of Medicines Evaluation at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). 

In England, any new medicine, treatment or medical device developed to solve a health problem must be approved and licensed by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to prove it is safe and effective. In addition, at the request of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, a health technology assessment or HTA needs to be carried out by NICE. This is in order to assesses whether the proposed new treatment is clinically effective and cost effective for use within the NHS. 

In this podcast Helen Knight explains the role of NICE in the development and availability of new treatments. She talks in detail about what HTAs are and the important role stakeholders and patient organisations, such as Lymphoma Action, have in ensuring NICE have a clear picture on what the question is that needs to be answered by the treatments being assessed.

As Helen explains, ‘NICE drives innovation into the hands of health practitioners.' 

Listen to the latest podcast here.