Adding Value: The Economic and Societal Benefits of Medical Technology

Executive summary

The current pressure to dramatically reduce public expenditure has led the NHS to review the efficiency of its services; this may in some cases include designating certain medical procedures as ‘low value’. The study of chronic conditions demonstrates that quick-fix solutions for longterm illnesses – although incurring a low immediate cost – will be inadequate to deal with the longer-term impact of chronic disease on an ageing labour force, and associated costs to the welfare system. In order to reduce the societal burden of long-term conditions and maximise the cost-effectiveness of health and social care services, policy makers need to invest in medical innovations that enable individuals to continue to live fulfilling working and family lives, and prevent their premature withdrawal from the labour market.

Innovation and technology can deliver tangible improvements to important social outcomes, including the healthy extension of working lives, increased job retention and return to work, and improved daily functioning – all before the individuals are affected by the long-term consequences of disease. This report examines the positive impact that medical technologies like artificial hip/knee replacements, implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) and insulin pumps can have on both quality of life and labour market participation as the UK workforce ages. It also examines the consequences of delaying access to such interventions, and the extent to which this may have the effect of increasing costs to patients, the health care system and the economy overall.

The coalition government’s welfare reforms and the new NHS Outcomes Framework both aim to encourage individuals with long-term or chronic conditions to stay in or return to work, and therefore offer the opportunity to reduce both the payment of out-of-work benefits and lost societal productivity. Many of those receiving benefits are unemployed due to chronic disease and yet, ironically, active employment is known to improve health outcomes and quality of life at the individual level. Interventions, particularly early and preventative interventions involving medical technologies, may help those individuals regain active employment status, thus contributing to the retention of skills and improved societal productivity, while reducing the demand for the government to make payments to those individuals in the form of welfare benefits.

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