NHSX has published a Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC) in beta; new standards to assess the suitability and function of digital health technologies.
The standards form a baseline assessment criteria setting out how digital technologies will be assessed. It will be supported by a Guide to Good Practice for Digital and Data-Driven Health Technologies, which will be published in October by the NHS AI Lab.
The aim is to ‘articulate a clear ambition for the generation of digital services designed around people’s needs and which adhere to key principles of privacy, security, interoperability, clinical safety, accessibility and inclusion’.
A blogs post by NHSX stated: “The way digital tools and apps are assessed for use by the NHS is changing, with the assessments moving to NHSX. We will build on the work by NHS Digital as part of the NHS Apps Library programme, and will take forward a more streamlined assessment model, to include all digital health technologies.”
“Individually these will support digital health developers to design and deliver the best products for patients and the health and care system. Together they form the beginning of a broader support package which will also include a buyers’ guide to digital technologies, and evaluation resources for the health and care system.”
The criteria comes in response to an open consultation phase where innovators and other parties said they wanted ‘more tangible guidance, a clearly defined question set against which to be assessed against, and clarity on whether it applied more broadly than patient facing apps’.
The DTAC will be used for assessments including entry to the NHS Apps Library, and procurement frameworks such as the Health Systems Support Framework. NHSX will work with NHS England and NHS Improvement, to use the DTAC as a baseline expectation for nationally supported products.
The new assessment criteria has 5 core areas:
- Clinical safety
- Data protection
- Technical assurance
- Interoperability
- Usability and accessibility
The DTAC will be in beta for the next three months, allowing time for input from the industry.
View the DTAC in beta here.
