Problem Statement: As part of NICE’s efforts to constantly learn from data and implementation, NICE is tracking key data related to use of the January 2022 manual for technology evaluation. Particular focus is on the implementation of new and changed components of the methods manual. This will inform which areas of the new manual for technology evaluation are going well, and which areas might need additional support.

Description: Following each committee discussion on a topic, the topic-specific NICE team records key data for that topic to a centralised spreadsheet, in areas such as whether the topic used severity, whether any other flexibilities in the manual were applied etc. NICE then analyses this data every quarter to monitor patterns.

Furthermore, ad-hoc qualitative interviews are conducted with stakeholders if the quantitative data suggests that there are any issues with implementation. Initial qualitative interviews were conducted in December 2022 where NICE spoke directly with key internal and external stakeholders such as patient and clinical representatives, industry representatives, and committee members.

Lessons Learned: Please note that this is an ongoing exercise and data will be updated every quarter. As of the latest data cut (up to and including March 2023), 34 topics have been considered using the new manual. The severity modifier has been successfully applied (including x1.2 and x1.7 weighting) to support patient access to severe disease medicines. Committees have also made use of real world evidence, and applied additional flexibilities in their decision making, for example for medicines which address health inequalities.

Stakeholder perspective: Although it is too soon to assess the system-level impacts of the methods, due to the small number of medicines considered, overall implementation of the updated manual for technology evaluation is going well so far.