News

05 March, 2019

Health Technology Wales start 2019 by entering ‘Celtic connections’ strategic alliance

We’re starting 2019 by entering a ‘Celtic connections’ strategic alliance with our equivalent national bodies in Scotland and Ireland.

The alliance will support us as we deliver a strategic approach to the identification, appraisal and adoption of new health technologies including e.g. medical devices, surgical procedures, psychological therapies, telemonitoring and rehabilitation in Wales.

We’ll foster closer linkages with the Scottish Health Technology Group (SHTG), Health Information Quality Authority (HIQA) Ireland and Health Technology Assessment Group (HTAG) Ireland. As national bodies, it’s our role to assess and give guidance on non-medicine technologies within our respective health and care systems.

“We’re delighted to formalise our connections with SHTG, HIQA and HTAG,” said Dr Susan Myles. “It’s an exciting development for Health Technology Wales. It enables us to explore opportunities to co-produce evidence reviews, increase the number and range of technologies we consider, and promote knowledge exchange.”

The alliance has already brought early benefits to us, through sharing intelligence for evidence reviews on technologies of mutual interest and secondment of staff. We’re also expecting other benefits to include:

  • Enhanced access to clinical and subject experts
  • Shared training and development opportunities for staff
  • Reduced duplication and costs by either co-producing or adapting each other’s work.

The annual UK spend on non-medicine technologies is estimated to be £11bn for medical devices alone. The alliance aims to deliver mutual benefits and enable the best use of resources for the people of each country and their respective health and care systems.

We’ll be attending the Health Technology Assessment International (HTAi) Annual Meeting in Cologne from 15-19 June 2019 to present the progress made through the ‘Celtic connections’ strategic alliance.