Health Technology Wales celebrates its fifth anniversary

Health Technology Wales (HTW) has celebrated its fifth anniversary with a virtual event featuring speakers from across the health, social care, and innovation sectors in Wales.

The organisation was founded by Welsh Government in 2017 to assess non medicine health and care technologies and produce national guidance on their use in Wales.

Since it was set up it has published more than 30 pieces of national guidance on non-medicine health and care technologies.

So far, the national guidance published by Health Technology Wales has the potential to impact the lives of an estimated 365,515 people every year in Wales.

It became a Collaborating Partner of the Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre in 2020 and has begun working in partnership with Social Care Wales to better meet the needs of the social care sector.

Earlier this year it published its Pilot Adoption Audit, which studied the impact of HTW national guidance in Wales. It found that in most cases, national guidance published by HTW is having an impact.

Professor Peter Groves, Chairman of Health Technology Wales said:

“I am very proud that Health Technology Wales has achieved such a lot during the last five years and has grown into a mature, effective, and widely respected Health Technology Assessment organisation.   I am equally excited about the future and am confident that HTW will continue to develop in influence and impact.”

Dr Susan Myles, HTW Director, added: "I would like to take this opportunity to thank our partners across the health and social care sectors for working in collaboration with us to achieve our shared goals of supporting the adoption of effective and cost-effective technologies that offer improved care outcomes for the people of Wales.”

Speakers at the anniversary event included Eluned Morgan, Minister for Health and Social Services.

HTW also unveiled an animated video created to mark the anniversary and highlight its key achievements so far.