Health technology developers can optimise their plans with help from Health Technology Wales (HTW).
The independent organisation, set up by the Welsh government, has launched the new HTW Scientific Advice Service.
The consultancy service supports technology developers in Wales to demonstrate value that meets the needs of care commissioners, care providers, patients and service users.
The HTW Scientific Advice Service is fee-based and being offered in an effort to improve health for people in Wales.
It’s available for technology developers of all sizes; from individuals and new start-ups to research departments, SMEs and large companies.
Matthew Prettyjohns, principal researcher at Health Technology Wales, said: “We’re really pleased to start providing the HTW Scientific Advice Service to developers. We know from speaking to tech developers that this is an area where they would appreciate more support.
“We aim to support them to overcome barriers to market access by helping them to consider the best types of evidence, identify gaps in their existing evidence and take the next steps to bring a product to market. This could be useful for companies at various stages of their development. Crucially, our input will help them to save time and resources, too.
“Our independent service can really make a difference by providing high quality research expertise. It will enable health and care that is demonstrably effective and informed by evidence, benefitting people in Wales.”
The HTW Scientific Advice Service is appropriate for a range of non-medicine health technologies, such as medical devices, diagnostics procedures.
Health Technology Wales is making use of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Medtech Early Technical Assessment (META) Tool, an online structured framework, to deliver the HTW Scientific Advice Service.
