Developers - Creating a value proposition for digital technology in health and social care

If you want your digital technology to be placed on the UK health and social care market, you’ll need to create a value proposition.

A value proposition is key to digital technology adoption

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) advises you to create a clear, purposeful value proposition for your technology in health and social care. It is one of the key first steps in the development process.

Deciding on a realistic value proposition and then proving your claim through evidence generation is fundamental to getting your technology adopted.

If your value proposition is limited or not backed up by evidence, it’s highly unlikely your technology will be relevant and useful for the health and social care system in the UK.

The value proposition and why you need it

The value proposition is a statement of the value your technology could bring to the UK health and social care system. It usually includes information on:

• what your technology is intended to do
• who it is for
• how it works and
• why patients, health and care services might benefit from it

Below are the key elements of a value proposition.

Key element 1: identifying how your digital technology compares

Potential adopters will compare your technology’s value with established clinical practice in health and social care, including the NHS. So, it is important that you identify what happens in current routine practice, and what value your technology brings relative to it.

The value your technology could bring generally falls under 2 categories:

• improving patient outcomes and
• reducing the use of health and care system resources

Key element 2: proving your digital technology is feasible

A key element of your value proposition is feasibility, and whether it is possible to generate evidence to support it. Collecting robust evidence to support your value proposition will take time and resources.

Example of a value proposition for a diagnostic technology:

‘this technology improves patient outcomes and reduces unnecessary follow-up procedures by reducing the number of false positives compared with the current standard of care’.

Here’s how to create and evidence your value proposition:

Step 1: Know your digital technology’s intended use

Write your intended purpose statement. The value proposition is linked to your technology’s intended use. This determines its qualification as a medical device and MHRA classification.

Step 2: Follow best-practice guidance and plan ahead

Use the resources below to help you write a value proposition:

NHSx guide to good practice for digital and data-driven health technologies

NHSx AI regulation guide: considerations when developing AI products

Think about using NICE's Office for Market Access service to help you understand your value proposition.

Test your ideas with users, such as NHS healthcare professionals and patients. This will help you develop a clear and relevant value proposition. It will also help you to identify barriers to adoption of your technology. For more information, see researching user needs.

Step 3: Develop an evidence-generation strategy

Think about the order in which you want to collect evidence. You could start with near-term value and plan for longer-term data collection.

Follow guidance on how to generate evidence for your value proposition in NICE's evidence standards framework for digital health technologies and NICE’s real-world evidence framework.

Also think about using NICE Scientific Advice's advisory service to help you develop an evidence-generation strategy. This will support a NICE evaluation of your digital technology and market access.

See planning for evidence generation for more information.