NHS England has extended HeartFlow’s participation in the Innovation and Technology Payment (ITP) programme for an additional year.
As part of the extension, NHS England will provide reimbursement to NHS hospitals for the usage of the HeartFlow FFRct Analysis, a non-invasive cardiac test for stable symptomatic patients with coronary heart disease (CHD), until March 31, 2020.
The HeartFlow Analysis was chosen as a new technology to be funded by ITP in April 2018. More than 35 hospitals adopted use of the HeartFlow Analysis during the first year of the ITP programme, and it is anticipated that an additional 30 hospitals will adopt the HeartFlow Analysis with the extension.
Dr Philip Strike, interventional cardiologist, Queen Alexandra Hospital, Portsmouth said: “Using the HeartFlow Analysis has transformed our paradigm for investigating chest pain. It has dramatically reduced the numbers of patients requiring invasive investigation and has allowed strategic targeting of therapy for those patients who still require invasive angiography, which saves both time and expense. It has allowed sensible and safe waiting list management and allowed prioritisation of higher risk patients by removing unnecessary invasive assessment in other patients.”
The ITP designation for the HeartFlow Analysis follows medical technology guidance issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in February 2017, which recommended the HeartFlow Analysis as the most cost-effective option following a coronary computed tomography angiogram (CTA) when additional information is needed by the clinician for patients with stable chest pain. Additionally, NICE clinical guidelines recommend coronary CTA as the initial diagnostic test for most patients with stable chest pain.
Dana G. Mead, Jr., president and chief executive officer, HeartFlow said: “We are delighted that NHS England recognizes the impact of the HeartFlow Analysis in improving the patient experience and enhancing clinical decision making and efficiency. With the ITP extension, we look forward to working with NHS hospitals to make the HeartFlow Analysis available to more clinicians and their patients.”
