NICE Technology Appraisals in the NHS in England - to March 2015, Experimental statistics, Innovation scorecard

The objective of the Innovation Scorecard is to support appropriate access to NICE approved products (medicines, devices and diagnostics), by giving Health and Care commissioners and professionals information they can use to identify and act on unwarranted variation in patient access to these treatments. The Scorecard does this by transparently providing access to data, which can be used alongside a range of other data sources (including patient population outcomes) to measure progress in access to NICE approved products within local areas or at a national level. 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 first Innovation Scorecard was published in January 2013, using data from 2011. The second publication in September 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.

The inclusion criteria for medicines have been updated in this publication. Medicines with a TA published from 2011 onwards, which is positively appraised by NICE have been included. All other inclusion criteria remain unchanged. Medicines with a TA between January 2008 and December 2010 are available in earlier publications of the innovation scorecard.

In this publication the medicines and medical technologies are presented in separate interactive spreadsheets. These spreadsheets 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 maps 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.

Due to the experimental status of the publication and the provisional nature of some of the data from operational processes, some figures may be revised from publication to publication as issues are uncovered and resolved. The experimental status allows for this to occur if it is determined that a refresh of data is required subsequent to initial release. Where a refresh of data occurs, it will be clearly documented in the publications. Users should always use the figures in the latest publication to ensure they are the most up to date figures available.

Please note, figures for Debrisoft monofilament debridement pad (MTG17) per 100,000 population have been revised in the October 2015 publication. Previously published figures are incorrect. Due to concerns over the quality of some of the underlying data received by the HSCIC, the data for Alemtuzumab and Rituximab has been suppressed for Quarter 4 2014/15. The HSCIC are in discussion with the data supplier to resolve these issues and data will be included in future publications.

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

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