The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has presented details of its three-year international strategy which sets out the direction and priorities for the Institute’s international engagements and partnerships over the period 2022 to 2025.
The strategic ambitions included in the international plan are:
Improving healthcare outcomes across the world
NICE will contribute to improvements in health and care outcomes across the world by sharing the learning and expertise of NICE internationally, enhancing NICE’s reputation as a world-leading institution.
This will involve NICE supporting organisations to:
- Allocate limited healthcare resources through embedding HTA and health technology management as a way to help manage rising costs and promote innovation in a cost-effective, transparent and sustainable way.
- Improve the quality of care and reduce variation of access in health and social care services through the development of evidence-based guidelines
- Promote inclusivity of key stakeholders in health and social care decision-making.
This strategic ambition also aims to:
- Contribute to NHS and UK government global health ambitions. The plan notes that “NICE is well positioned to champion the NHS partnership model and brand abroad, be an ambassador of the UK life sciences ecosystem and to facilitate conversations at a government-to-government level, contributing to improvement in relationship building, development and trade through the lens of health”.
- Contribute to NICE’s learnings and transformational people strategy. For instance, increased international engagement will enhance NICE’s collaboration skills and contribute to its learnings.
Establishing collaborative relationships with other countries
NICE will develop a proactive international intelligence function by establishing collaborative relationships and projects aligned with NICE’s priority areas. To this end, the Institute will continue its existing collaborative partnerships and projects and proactively identify new opportunities for partnerships and projects.
Measurement of Success
Two NICE teams (NICE International and the Science Policy and Research Programme) will act as key enablers of its international strategic objectives.
According to the strategy, NICE will know it has met its objectives when “we [NICE] have made meaningful contributions to improvements in health outcomes and evidence-based decision-making in health and social care across the world.
“We will work to derive metrics to track the impact and value of our international work, which will inform the measures of success to monitor these ambitions. These should relate to contributions that NICE makes in the global health environment through its collaborations, contributions to UK Global health ambitions, and contributions to NICE’s reputation, learnings and intelligence and staff motivation and satisfaction”.
Next Steps
The international strategy will be underpinned by a detailed action plan covering the next three years and will feed into NICE’s annual business plan objectives.
Commenting on the strategy, Lord Kamall, parliamentary under secretary of state for technology, innovation and life sciences, Department of Health and Social Care states “NICE’s new international strategy outlines two important and overarching ambitions […] I see both as key contributions to our country’s aspirations to support improvements in health and social care both at home and globally.
“NICE has built its reputation through providing robust, independent and trusted advice to the health and care system. This strategy will support NICE to continue and enhance its ability to make an influential contribution to international developments and best practice, ultimately benefiting people and patients across the globe”.
Source:
www.nice.org, “International strategy for NICE”, February 2022