An Innovator’s Guide to the NHS | Boehringer Ingelheim UK

This Innovator’s Guide is free to download and provides a comprehensive assessment of the English health system, pooling key stakeholder insights and signposting to further information to help entrepreneurs get digital health technologies to patients and healthcare professionals.

Chapter One: The journey towards digital healthcare

Having a good understanding of the policy context in which digital technologies operate will equip innovators with essential insights into current NHS priorities. This puts innovators in a better position to pitch their technologies to the health service in a way that best demonstrates the value they offer the system. The key themes over the last 20 years of policy have been: national vs. local decision-making; developing a digitally literate workforce; the evolving purpose of digital innovation; collaboration with industry; and financial efficiency.

Chapter Two: Regulation

Adhering to ever-changing regulation can be burdensome and resource intensive, so having a comprehensive grasp of the landscape enables innovators to plan their product journey effectively and efficiently. This chapter is an introduction for innovators through the complex regulatory environment, highlighting considerations they should be aware of.

Chapter Three: Access

Getting a digital technology into the hands of patients and clinicians is a challenge for companies of all sizes. The health system in England is fragmented and notoriously difficult to navigate, however there are support routes available for innovators with both ready-for-market products and products in development. Organisations like the Academic Health Science Network, for example, can provide innovators with the tools and expertise they need to expand uptake of their technologies. This chapter outlines what programs and initiatives are available to innovators in search of a helping hand into the market.

Chapter Four: Reimbursement

Achieving national reimbursement is an ideal route to widespread product uptake. However, there are currently limited opportunities for this, so innovators benefit also from pursuing individual negotiations with local payers like NHS trusts and health systems. This chapter gives innovators an overview of the national reimbursement opportunities available for digital products, such as the Innovation and Technology Payment, as well as what kind of evidence innovators need to generate in order to build effective business cases for pitching to both national and local health organisations.

Chapter Five: Stakeholders

The digital health landscape in England is made up of a multitude of organisations whose roles and remits can be unclear. This chapter sets out the main function of each digital health stakeholder, how they interact with one another and why they are relevant to innovators.

Chapter Six: Recap

Each of the five chapters conclude with key insights and advice for both innovators and policy makers, and this final chapter pulls these all together in one place. Serving as a useful additional resource alongside the Innovator’s Guide Executive Summary, this chapter offers innovators a quick and easy way to benefit from many of the Guide’s best insights.

Download the Innovator's Guide here

Download the Innovator’s Guide Executive Summary here