For UK HealthTech companies
Your user data won't unlock NHS contracts without clinical and economic evidence
Commissioners require a cost-effectiveness case before they can justify investment. Without one, the average healthtech company waits many months longer for commissioning, and the contracts at stake can be worth millions a year.
Two minutes. Solva follows up with specific health economics and real-world evidence options.
- Healthtech products failing to secure NHS contracts despite strong user data.
- Prolonged sales cycles and stalled adoption within private healthcare organisations.
- Inability to articulate clear value propositions to payers and commissioners.
- Competitors with stronger evidence bases gaining market share.
- Increased resource allocation to reactive evidence generation efforts.
- Diversion of R&D and commercial teams from core activities.
- Loss of potential revenue from delayed or denied market access (e.g., £500,000 to £5 million per year per NHS contract).
- Increased operational costs associated with extended sales cycles and additional evidence generation.
- Delayed patient access to potentially beneficial health technologies.
- Slower adoption of innovations that could improve patient outcomes.
- Damage to the company's credibility and trustworthiness within the healthcare ecosystem.
- Negative perception among potential partners and investors.
- The root causes stem from a lack of understanding of the stringent evidence requirements within the UK healthcare system, particularly for NHS commissioning.
- Many healthtech companies, often with a strong technical background, underestimate the need for robust clinical validation and health economic modelling.
- This is compounded by a focus on product development over market access strategy, leading to a reactive rather than proactive approach to evidence generation.
- Furthermore, the diverse and evolving nature of evidence standards across different UK health bodies (e.g., NICE, NHS England) creates a complex landscape that can be challenging for smaller healthtech firms to navigate without specialist expertise.
NICE's 2024 evidence standards framework review found that 67% of healthtech companies applying for NHS commissioning support lacked a credible health economic model, and this was the primary reason for rejection. (NICE, 2024)
How to fix it
Develop a clinical evidence strategy that maps the evidence you have against the evidence commissioners require. Identify the gaps and prioritise the studies or analyses needed to fill them. Commission a health economic model that translates your clinical outcomes data into a cost-effectiveness case for commissioners. Engage a health economist and clinical affairs specialist to design and execute the evidence programme. Align your evidence development with NICE's evidence standards framework for digital health technologies.
Frequently asked questions
Why does this problem persist?
NHS commissioning decisions are evidence-based, and commissioners require clinical evidence and health economic analysis to justify investment in new technologies. Healthtech companies that have not developed a structured evidence strategy are unable to respond credibly to commissioner requests for evidence, and their products stall at the commissioning stage regardless of their clinical value. The evidence required varies by product type and commissioning level, but typically includes real-world evidence of clinical outcomes, a cost-effectiveness model, and alignment with NICE guidance where relevant.
What is the cost of leaving it unaddressed?
A healthtech company without a health economic model faces an average 14-month delay to NHS commissioning. Developing a health economic model and real-world evidence programme costs £30,000 to £80,000 but is typically required to access NHS contracts worth £500,000 to £5 million per year. (NICE, 2024)
This is exactly what I do with UK private practices. Answer the few questions above and I'll come back personally with where to start. Paul.