Better and more efficient NHS care through innovative approaches to treatment

What is the issue?

New life sciences and health technology approaches to treatment have the capacity to significantly transform the quality and safety of patient care, as well as enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of NHS services within the timeframe of the NHS 10-Year Plan. These advancements are grounded in fresh insights into bodily functions and the mechanisms through which therapies operate, including the use of genetic tools, innovative technologies, devices and data. Examples include genomic medicine, synthetic biology, regenerative medicine, novel immunotherapies, biologics for public health challenges, AMR-related innovation, digital and data-enabled therapeutics, functional restoration, robotic surgery, nanobots, smart pills and AI. Some of these approaches are already transforming patient care in areas like cancer, obesity, rare diseases and mental health, alongside complementary diagnostic innovation (e.g. in artificial intelligence, genetic testing).

Preparing and shaping health and innovation systems to make this potential a reality at scale requires visionary and timely policy action. This includes appropriate support for research and innovation to develop innovative treatment approaches and create enabling environments in the NHS for adoption and patient access.

How did we help?

Through future visioning and back casting methodologies, including desk research, stakeholder consultations and case vignettes, the project arrived at a vision of "what good looks like" in relation to innovative treatment approaches (i.e. new treatment paradigms) and identified key actions that could form part of an implementation strategy to achieve this vision.

What did we find?

In a vision for the future of treatment in the NHS:

• Precise and personalised biological and health technology treatment approaches could improve patient outcomes and the efficiency and effectiveness of NHS services.
• New therapeutic approaches could reduce the need for repeated treatments and hospitalisations, improve access to care and help address unmet needs.
• Novel treatment approaches could help address major public health challenges, including those related to social inequalities.
• Being a world-leading location to trial innovative treatments, alongside efforts to secure access to treatments, could deliver health and economic benefits.

Although biological and health technology treatment paradigms are more advanced and closer to delivering impact than others, the greatest opportunities lie not in selecting specific technologies but in fostering a supportive ecosystem for treatment innovation within and around the NHS.

What can be done?

The UK has world-leading expertise in health and life sciences research, yet the NHS often lags in adopting innovations, in part due to cost sensitivities but also a wider nexus of workforce (e.g. time, headspace, incentives), and regulatory and infrastructural constraints. To maximise the impact of innovative treatments on both population health, health services and the wider economy and society, efforts should focus on scaling mature treatment modalities over the next decade while supporting emerging high-potential technologies for longer-term breakthroughs. This requires a robust ecosystem of seven support mechanisms, including:

• Supporting the workforce (skills, capacities, time, permission and headspace).
• Improving data infrastructure, as well as access to information and evidence.
• Creating strategic funding approaches supported by improved demand signalling.
• Streamlining R&D governance and regulation.
• Enhancing physical infrastructure in a way that balances the basic ‘nuts and bolts’ with investments into high-tech facilities and infrastructure.
• Fostering collaboration and coordination, in a way that minimises unnecessary duplication of effort and prevents siloed working between industrial strategy and health policy.
• Ensuring equitable patient engagement and participation, with particular concern for mitigating inequalities.

Our summary discussion paper and accompanying full report outline 15 concrete actions related to these support mechanisms that can help the NHS to balance immediate challenges with visionary long-term improvements, ensuring sustainable, high-quality care and harnessing the UK's strategic strengths in innovation.