Medical Delta Program ‘Accelerating impactful technological innovations in healthcare’

The success of a healthcare innovation depends on several factors. With a so-called 'Health Technology Assessment' (HTA), it is possible to make a good estimate of the viability of a healthcare innovation at an early stage. At that stage, it is still possible to make adjustments or to stop further development in a timely manner. 

The evaluation framework of current HTAs is based on necessity, effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, and budget impact. This is too limited: healthcare-related and societal factors such as the use of scarce healthcare personnel, sustainability, and reducing health inequalities are becoming increasingly decisive for the value and, therefore, the success of an innovation.

The Medical Delta Program ‘Accelerating impactful technological innovations in healthcare’ creates new, broader assessment frameworks to enable well-founded reimbursement decisions. It contributes to ensuring that valuable innovations ultimately reach the finish line.

The program is a continuation of the scientific Medical Delta program 'From Prototype to Payment', which began in 2019. It established, among other things, that current (HTAs) are too narrow: factors that can ultimately determine the success and societal value of an innovation are insufficiently considered. Many innovations are not developed based on societal needs, but rather from technological interest or business-driven considerations. As a result, a lot of 'me-too' technology and innovations are created that ultimately do not find a place in healthcare practice.

New assessment framework gives value to social impact

The Medical Delta Program ‘Accelerating impactful technological innovations in healthcare’ broadens the evaluation framework to include social impact. It establishes a 'Medical Delta assessment framework' that also evaluates whether an innovation takes into account the scarcity of financial resources, manpower, raw materials, know-how, and contributes to addressing the climate issue. 

Shifting from a sole focus on economic growth, the value assessment of healthcare innovations is transforming toward promoting well-being growth within the planet's capacity limits. The Medical Delta assessment framework includes, among other things, a more explicit consideration of how technology contributes to increasing well-being (not just health), smarter utilization of healthcare professionals, providing care closer to home, reducing the ecological footprint, and decreasing health disparities. 

Input from innovators, citizens and patients

The input for this comes from focus groups and interviews with innovators, patients, citizens, financiers, and policymakers. In 'discrete choice experiments,' they weigh various elements of the evaluation framework. 

If, after a broad impact assessment, it is determined that an innovation has the desired positive clinical, economic, and social impact, effective implementation strategies are needed to accelerate and expand access to that innovation. The Medical Delta Program ‘Accelerating impactful technological innovations in healthcare’ also aims to accelerate the implementation of impactful innovations

Goals

The Medical Delta Program ‘Accelerating impactful technological innovations in healthcare’  is developing a new HTA framework that takes social impact into account, thereby increasing the likelihood that valuable innovations reach clinical practice. 

This 'Medical Delta assessment framework':

• develops methods for measuring and integrating socially desired effects of technology and their application in the decision-making process;
• includes a list of criteria that enables innovators to highlight the broad social impact of their innovation and helps policymakers better assess the social value of the innovation;
• assigns weight to the relative importance of these criteria that innovators and policymakers can use when evaluating the overall value of innovations;
• provides recommendations for using this broad HTA framework in decision-making at the national, local, and organizational levels;
• can be applied in other Medical Delta programs and living labs. 

This program is a continuation of the scientific program Medical Delta's Journey from Prototype to Payment

Contact

For more information or if you're interested in participating, please contact one of our innovation managers.