The Institute for Public Policy Research report: The Innovation Lottery supports many of the Medical Technology Group’s own studies into the value of medical innovation to patients, the NHS, and wider society.

The IPPR’s findings – that if the UK were to match the performance of our international peers, 20,000 deaths could be avoided, and that the prospective economic dividend would be in the region of £20 billion a year – align closely with our joint research with the Work Foundation*. This examined the impact of introducing a handful of medical technologies, concluding that there were widespread benefits to helping patients return to work or care for others, not just in terms of patient outcomes, but also to the long-term efficiency of the NHS and to the public purse.

The Covid-19 cloud has produced one silver lining – it has clearly demonstrated the value of medical technology. We now have a clear opportunity to build on this, to adopt a culture of innovation, address unwarranted variation in access to medical technology, and support the NHS as it embarks on the challenge of recovering services.

Let’s take this chance to reset our NHS, harness the enormous potential of medtech, and make it the world-leading service that it has the potential to be.

* Adding Value: The Economic and Societal Benefits of Medical Technology

* Keeping Britain Working: How medical technology can help reduce the cost of ill health to the UK economy