On February 9, 2021, the UK Government’s Department for Health and Social Care (“DHSC”) announced a review into the efficient and safe use of health data for research and analysis for the benefit of patients in the health sector (“Review”). The DHSC encourages stakeholder feedback in the context of the Review, and will be of … Continue Reading
On December 23, 2020, the European Commission (the “Commission”) published its inception impact assessment (“Inception Impact Assessment”) of policy options for establishing a European Health Data Space (“EHDS”). The Inception Impact Assessment is open for consultation until February 3, 2021, encouraging “citizens and stakeholders” to “provide views on the Commission’s understanding of the current situation, … Continue Reading
On 18 January 2021, the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (“POST”)* published its AI and Healthcare Research Briefing about the use of artificial intelligence (“AI”) in the UK healthcare system (the “Briefing”). The Briefing considers the potential impacts of AI on the cost and quality of healthcare, and the challenges posed by the … Continue Reading
On January 6, 2021 the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care (“DHSC”) published “A Guide to Good Practice for Digital and Data-Driven Health Technologies” (the “Guidance”). The Guidance updates the DHSC’s “Code of Conduct for Data-Driven Health and Care Technologies” (the “Code”) (for further information on the Code see our earlier blog, here). As … Continue Reading
To assist companies that are developing technology solutions to help predict, mitigate or contain the spread of COVID-19, our cross-practice digital health team has put together a checklist of considerations to keep in mind (available here). For additional guidance, please visit our COVID-19 Legal and Business Toolkit (available here).… Continue Reading
In this final instalment of our series of blogs on the European Commission’s plans for AI and data, announced on 19 February 2020, we discuss some potential effects on companies in the digital health sector. As discussed in our previous blog posts (here, here and here), the papers published by the European Commission cover broad … Continue Reading
On February 27, 2020 NHSX, the technology and digital unit of the NHS, published its draft Digital Health Technology Standard (the “Standard”) for consultation to stakeholders in the digital health space (the “Consultation”). The Consultation is open until 22 April, 2020 (and is available here). The Standard, which is based on existing industry and health … Continue Reading
The Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London has published a report called “NHS data: Maximising its impact on the health and wealth of the United Kingdom” (the “Report”).[1] The Report begins from the premise that the knowledge gleaned from the combination of patient health data and “big data” technologies has incredible potential … Continue Reading
Following on from the Evidence Standards Framework for DHTs published in December 2018 (the Original Standards, as reported in our previous blog post, here), the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recently published a newly updated version of the standards (the Updated Standards, available here). The Updated Standards were produced following feedback … Continue Reading
On 15 February 2019, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and Heads of Medicines Agencies (HMA) published their Joint Big Data Taskforce’s summary report (available here) setting out recommendations for understanding the acceptability of evidence derived from ‘big data’ in support of the evaluation and supervision of medicines by regulators. The Taskforce has sought to clarify … Continue Reading
On 17 October, the UK Government’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) published a policy paper entitled “The future of healthcare: our vision for digital, data and technology in health and care” (the Policy Paper). The Policy Paper outlines the DHSC’s vision to use technology across the health and care system, from “getting the … Continue Reading
On 8 October, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) published a report (available here) setting out the progress it has made towards applying a common data model (CDM) in Europe. The EMA defines a CDM as “a mechanism by which raw data are standardized to a common structure, format and terminology independently from any particular study … Continue Reading
On 1 May, 2018 the Centre for Policy Studies (the “CPS”) published its latest paper on the UK’s National Health Service (the “NHS”) entitled “Powerful Patients, Paperless Systems: How New Technology Can Renew The NHS” (the “Paper”). The Paper advocates a “digital first NHS” that adopts a paperless system and enables patients to take full … Continue Reading
On the April 25, 2018 the European Commission (the “Commission”) adopted a plan of action to enable the digital transformation of health and care in the Digital Single Market (the “Communication”), intended to put EU citizens at the centre of the healthcare system. This is to be achieved in three ways: 1. Citizens’ secure access … Continue Reading
On 14 September 2017, the Committee for Human Medicinal Products (“CHMP”) of the European Medicines Agency adopted ICH Guideline E18 (the “Guideline”) on genomic sampling and the management of genomic data. The Guideline takes effect on 28 February 2018. The International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (“ICH”) … Continue Reading
In the second of a three-part series, Covington’s global cross-practice Digital Health team considers some additional key questions that companies across the life sciences, technology, and communications industries should be asking as they seek to fit together the regulatory and commercial pieces of the complex digital health puzzle. Key Commercial Questions When Contracting for Digital … Continue Reading
In the first of a three-part series, Covington’s global cross-practice Digital Health team answers key questions that companies across the life sciences, technology, and communications industries should be asking as they seek to fit together the regulatory and commercial pieces of the complex digital health puzzle. Key Regulatory Questions About Digital Health Solutions 1. What are … Continue Reading