Virtual ward platform technologies for acute respiratory infections
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Guidance development process
Early value assessment (EVA) guidance rapidly provides recommendations on promising health technologies that have the potential to address national unmet need. NICE has assessed early evidence on these technologies to determine if earlier patient and system access in the NHS is appropriate while further evidence is generated. This assessment is a bespoke project as part of the Health Technology Assessment Innovation Laboratory (HTA Lab) programme at NICE. The process was closely modelled on NICE's Early Value Assessment programme while allowing flexibility to adapt to the specific issues associated with virtual ward platform technologies.
NICE has been asked to produce a number of products to support and inform the expansion of virtual ward provision and other intermediate care areas. This health technology evaluation provides recommendations on virtual ward platform technologies for providing virtual wards for people with acute respiratory infections. The aim is to outline key considerations and characteristics of the digital platforms, create an early economic model and identify outcomes to prioritise for future data collection.
The medical technologies advisory committee has considered the evidence and the views of clinical and patient experts. EVA guidance recommendations are conditional while more evidence is generated to address uncertainty in the evidence base. NICE has included advice in this guidance on how to minimise any clinical or system risk of early adoption of virtual ward platform technologies.
Further evidence will be generated over the next 4 years to assess if the benefits of these technologies are realised in practice. NICE guidance will be reviewed to include this evidence and make a recommendation on the routine adoption of this technology across the NHS.
This document has been prepared for public consultation. It summarises the evidence and views that have been considered and sets out the evidence generation recommendations made by the committee. NICE invites comments from registered stakeholders, healthcare professionals and the public. This document should be read with the evidence for this evaluation.
The advisory committee is interested in receiving comments on the following:
Has all of the relevant evidence been considered?
Are the summaries of clinical effectiveness, costs and resource use reasonable interpretations of the evidence?
Are the recommendations sound, and a suitable basis for guidance to the NHS?
Equality issues
NICE is committed to promoting equality of opportunity, eliminating unlawful discrimination and fostering good relations between people with particular protected characteristics and others. Please let us know if you think that the recommendations may need changing to meet these aims. In particular, please tell us if the recommendations:
could have a different effect on people protected by the equality legislation than on the wider population, for example by making it more difficult in practice for a specific group to access the technology
could have any adverse effect on disabled people.
Please provide any relevant information or data you have about such effects and how they could be avoided or reduced.
Note that this document is not NICE's final guidance on virtual ward platform technologies for acute respiratory infections. The recommendations in section 1 may change after consultation.
After consultation, NICE will consider the comments received. The final recommendations will be the basis for NICE's early value guidance.
Key dates:
Closing date for comments: 1 September 2023
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