NICE Technology Appraisals in the NHS in England - June 2014 Experimental statistics, Innovation scorecard

The Innovation Scorecard aims to improve transparency within the NHS of what treatments recommended by NICE are available within Trusts and CCGs and at National and Area Team level. It is intended to support monitoring of compliance with NICE Technology Appraisal (TA) recommendations and to assist the NHS in the identification of variation, which can be explained, challenged or acted upon. It is not intended to be used for performance management.

The Innovation Health and Wealth Strategy set out plans to support development and adoption of innovation in the NHS. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) technology appraisal process assesses the clinical and cost effectiveness of new and existing medicines and treatments, and provides guidance on their use by the NHS.

There is no central collection of data which can directly support the assessment of uptake of NICE recommendations, nor is data on the number of patients treated available. Therefore this is an experimental publication, which makes use of data currently available from a range of sources, both from the NHS and the commercial sector. The HSCIC welcomes comments and suggestions from users to support future development of appropriate datasets and reporting.

The data is presented in the form of two interactive spreadsheets which use macros to allow users to identify the organisations, interventions and time periods they wish to explore. The data is also presented in tables, charts and mapping to identify trends and variation. A 'How to...' tab on the interactive spreadsheets explains how to use them.

An accompanying report describes the data, the sources and its limitations. Please note that the interactive spreadsheets should be viewed in conjunction with the report, and the caveats to interpretation should be noted.

In addition, an estimates report looks at the use of a range of appraised medicines in relation to the number of eligible patients as estimated by NICE.

Additional information is available in an FAQ format.

The first Innovation Scorecard was published in January 2013, using data from 2011. The second publication in June 2013 reported data for 2012. The Innovation Scorecard has since been published on a quarterly basis, showing data for additional quarters since October 2013. It has also developed over this time to include new treatments recommended by NICE and by enhancements to the format and presentation. A key development for this new publication is the inclusion of summary statistics and use of quintile grouping of NHS organisations.

Note that due to the size of the spreadsheets, they may take a few moments to open.

NHS England have released additional maps. See the link provided below.

Please note: On 2 February 2015 an updated version of the interactive spreadsheet, interactive map and utilisation csv data files were uploaded to reflect errors in the data presented for a small number of medicines. There are substantial changes to the data for two of the 92 medicines included, with minor changes to seven.

For Botulinum Toxin Type A, secondary care data has been revised in the national and Area Team level data to include Toxin Type A only. Data is now 25 per cent lower overall (from 24,315 to 18,344 DDDs per 100,000 population in quarter 1 2014-15). Data changes range from 57 per cent lower at Derbyshire Area Team to 0 per cent at Cheshire Area Team.

For Darbepoetin Alfa, secondary care data has been revised in the national and Area Team level data to correct DDD calculations. Data is 99 per cent lower overall (from 353,043 to 3,972 DDDs per 100,000 population in quarter 1 2014-15). Data changes range by Area Team but most values have changed substantially. Primary care and FP10HP data has not changed.

Figures have also slightly changed for Dabigatran Etexilate, Lenalidomide, Peginterferon Alfa 2b, Risedronate Sodium (excludes 30mg), Rivastigmine, Somatropin, and Tobramycin (DPI only). Data for each of these medicines has changed by less than 2 per cent overall, however some data sources and organisations have changed more than others.

Full details are provided in the publication report on page 3.