Scotland’s national approach to introducing new health technologies could provide a model for more efficient and consistent adoption of healthcare innovations across the UK, according to a new study.
Led by the University of Strathclyde and commissioned by the Health Foundation, the study compared systems for adopting health innovations across Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Researchers found that Scotland’s Accelerated National Innovation Adoption (ANIA) Pathway provides a strong framework for identifying promising technologies, assessing their clinical effectiveness and value for money, and supporting their adoption across NHS Scotland.
National level
Led by NHS Scotland’s Centre for Sustainable Delivery, ANIA takes a ‘Once for Scotland’ approach across the country’s 14 territorial health boards and is delivered through collaboration between the NHS Boards, the Scottish Government, and national partners including Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Public Health Scotland and Public Service Delivery Scotland.
By bringing assessment, funding and implementation together at a national level, the pathway aims at designing and implementing innovations once at a national level, rather than separately for each NHS health board, to support consistent and uniform adoption across Scotland.
The researchers suggest Scotland could also serve as a UK-wide ‘test bed’ for evaluating approaches to introducing healthcare innovations at national scale.
Digital devices
The report highlights the importance of involving patients and the public in the adoption process. In one ANIA project involving technology for people with Type 1 diabetes, around 70 patients helped shape the introduction of digital devices and the support provided to people as they began using them.
The study also identified examples of effective practice across all four UK nations, while suggesting that aspects of Scotland’s coordinated national approach could offer valuable lessons elsewhere.
Professor Robert van der Meer, Professor of Health Economics and Healthcare Analytics at the University of Strathclyde and principal investigator on the study, said: “Ultimately, healthcare innovation should improve people’s health and their experience of care.
“Developing an effective technology is only part of the challenge. We also need to ensure that innovations shown to work can become part of everyday healthcare.
The ‘Once for Scotland’ approach demonstrates how national coordination can create a clear route from identifying promising innovations to putting them into practice.
“An important part of that is collaboration between the NHS, universities and industry, known as the ‘triple helix’ approach. Working together can help promising ideas become practical improvements in care.”
New technologies
Katie Cuthbertson, National Associate Director of the Centre for Sustainable Delivery, said: “We welcome the findings of this study, which recognise the value of taking a coordinated, Once for Scotland approach to adopting innovation across NHS Scotland.
“Through the ANIA pathway, we work with partners across health to identify innovations that can make a real difference and support their adoption at a national level. This helps reduce variation and gives patients across Scotland greater opportunity to benefit from effective new technologies.
“Collaboration is central to this work. By bringing together expertise from across NHS Scotland and our wider partners, we can support innovation in a way that is evidence-based, sustainable and focused on improving outcomes for patients.”
The report recommends national- level funding to sustain innovation adoption at different phases. It also proposes a publicly accessible dashboard to show which innovations are being considered, their progress through the adoption process, and how widely they have been implemented across Scotland