Our forward view highlights the areas we will prioritise in the coming year.
These topics will be refreshed on an annual basis. We may also update them during the year in response to major developments or new innovations in the life sciences, health and care.
The topics we're prioritising
Our mission is to get the best treatment and care to patients fast at value to the taxpayer.
Through this forward view, we will highlight the topics we are focusing on, and that matter most to you in the health and care system.
We will be launching a comprehensive update of our forward view in the autumn, following the new 10-year plan for the NHS.
Areas that we are likely to look at during the 2025 to 2026 business year include:
- diagnostics to support tackling antimicrobial resistance
- metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH)
- obesity
- type 1 diabetes
- use of biologics for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Our early priorities 2025 to 2026
Diabetes
Topics in development
Why:
- Growing diabetes population with a high likelihood of undiagnosed groups.
Early cancer detection/diagnosis
Topics in development
Diagnostics guidance
Early value assessment
Why:
- Growing demand across cancer pathways and multiple cancer types.
- Emergence of novel diagnostics including digital and AI technologies that may support earlier detection of cancer.
- The budget implications for these technologies and downstream treatment pathways could be significant.
Mental health
Topics in development
Diagnostics guidance
Why:
- Significant unmet clinical need across multiple conditions and populations, exacerbated by the pandemic.
- Long-standing workforce and service constraints.
- New opportunities emerging in digital technologies and medical devices that have the potential to help address some of these challenges with the promise of significant population benefits.
Musculoskeletal conditions
Topics in development
Health technology evaluation
Early value assessment
Why:
- Musculoskeletal conditions account for one of the highest burdens of disease in England, with impacts on health-related quality of life, employment and productivity.
- Digital and medical devices offer novel ways of helping people to self-manage these issues.
Neurology
Topics in development
Medical technologies
Technology appraisal
- Donanemab for treating mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease [ID6222].
- Lecanemab for treating mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia caused by Alzheimer’s disease [ID4043].
- Hydromethylthionine mesylate for treating mild cognitive impairment or mild or moderate dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease [ID6343].
- Ganaxolone for treating seizures caused by CDKL5 deficiency disorder in people 2 years and over [ID3988].
- Fenfluramine for treating seizures associated with Lennox–Gastaut syndrome in people 2 years and over [ID1651].
Why:
- Several medicines for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are being developed alongside diagnostic tools that would benefit from NICE assessment.
- Other neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and tics and Tourette’s have seen recent innovation which NICE has already assessed or is planning to assess.
Respiratory
Topics in development
Diagnostics guidance
Health technology evaluation
Guidelines
Why:
- Significant growth in service demand for chronic respiratory conditions, coupled with well-documented health inequalities and workforce constraints, may lead to suboptimal outcomes.
- Respiratory diseases play a significant role in winter pressures faced by the health and care system.
- Technology is increasingly playing a part in delivering effective interventions to patients.
Women’s health
Topics in development
Guidance on women's health
Women’s and reproductive health guidelines
Why:
- Women’s health conditions are known to be significantly underdiagnosed.
- The gender health gap has a significant impact on the economy.
Learn more about our prioritisation process.
We will also be producing guidance on treatments for obesity, sickle cell disease and certain types of cancer.
Further details of forthcoming guidance, alongside dates of publication, are available through our resource planner.
Focusing on what matters most
We've developed the forward view to ensure we’re focusing on the areas that matter most to you in the health and care system.
Topics are aligned to national priorities. These include:
Health and care policy and priorities
- NHS priorities and operational planning guidance
- NHS long term plan
- Major conditions strategy
- Health inequalities.
Innovation
Social care
Jonathan Benger, Chief Medical Officer, Deputy CEO and Interim Director of the Centre for Guidelines, explains the rationale for prioritisation.
Topic suites
We've also mapped our portfolio of existing guidelines into topic suites. These are topics:
- that are national system priorities
- where the evidence is changing at pace or contains uncertainty
- that have a significant cost or other resource impact on the system
- that have an impact on health inequalities.
Our current topic suites are:.
What's next? Emerging areas and innovations in health and care
In 2025 and 2026, we will be building our newly established horizon scanning function to look at:
- emerging trends in health and care
- new technologies
- policies in the next 2 to 5 years.
The aim of this is to improve the readiness and responsiveness of NICE and system partners to the arrival of new, disruptive, health technologies. This will help provide support for system preparedness, and the production of healthcare guidance and technology assessment.
New and current trends include:
- Continued emergence of new Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs). Particular growth is expected in the number of RNA-therapies potentially coming to market in the medium term.
- Continued focus on the prudent use of antimicrobials. This includes rapid diagnostic tests for use in the community to support clinical decision making, alongside accompanying innovation in technologies and decision support systems.
- Advancements in the field of genomics, for both diagnostics and therapeutics. This includes integration with other omics data, use of AI to analyse genomic data, and continued development of gene editing tools.
- Application of wearables and resulting AI-driven insights to facilitate early detection of conditions, allowing real-time remote therapeutic monitoring and self-management.
- Progress in the field of multi-cancer tests, including multi-cancer early detection tests.