NICE Conference 2026 agenda

8am to 9am

Registration and refreshments

9am to 9:15am

Welcome from the NICE chief executive Dr Sam Roberts

Introduction to the day, and a reflection on the key opportunities for NICE in the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan: to get medicines to patients faster, reduce the postcode lottery for high impact healthtech, and maximise the health bang for every pound spent on treatments already in the NHS.

Chair:

  • Richard Vize, journalist and public policy analyst and NICE Conference 2026 chair.

Speaker:

9:15am to 9:55am

Opening keynote

Chair:

  • Richard Vize, journalist and public policy analyst and NICE Conference 2026 chair.

9:55am to 10:40am

The prevention prescription: Can creating healthier communities save the NHS?

We all know ‘prevention is better than cure’ but are we delivering this in practice? With the 10 Year Health Plan setting out an ambitious vision to shift the nation from sickness to prevention and reverse the obesity epidemic, how can the system work with people to create healthy, happy communities and improve wellbeing? How can the NHS harness the power of advanced technologies to keep people healthier, for longer? How are we working together to prepare for the next wave of innovative preventative medicines? What more do we need to do to ensure that they reach those that need them? What is the impact on strategic commissioning?

Chair:

Speakers:

10:40am to 11:15am

Refreshments and networking

11:15am to 12:15pm

Leading the charge: putting tech and digital healthcare on an equal footing with medicines

The 10 Year Health Plan calls for NICE to transform how high-impact healthtech is funded and adopted in the NHS. Find out how a new national pathway will ensure that devices, diagnostics and digital tools that meet the most urgent needs of the NHS are fast-tracked to patients. And as we embrace the transition from analogue to digital, how do we make sure no one is left behind? How can we make healthtech work to reduce inequalities and not widen them?

Driving access to transformative treatments and supporting a thriving life sciences industry

Find out how NICE is committed to helping position the NHS as a powerful customer for life sciences – one of the UK’s fastest growing industries. Hear about how NICE’s evaluation approaches are evolving to ensure a transparent, predictable and timely service for companies, patients and the NHS.

Chair:

Weighing up the evidence: Behind the scenes at NICE

Take a look behind the scenes at how NICE makes decisions. How is evidence considered, recommendations developed and what does good look like? How do we ensure that the voices of patients and those with lived experience are heard? How has the process evolved over the years and how are we ensuring our methods remain at the global forefront of technology evaluation and guideline development?

Chair:

12:15pm to 1:25pm

Lunch, refreshments and networking

Sponsored fringe panel session with lunch

From data to decisions: the role of real-world evidence in NICE’s medical technology assessment.

Sponsored by Dexcom

Please note: The full lunch menu will be provided to delegates attending this session, served in the meeting room.

This session is open to all delegates, but the room capacity is limited. Pre-registration is recommended.

1:25pm to 2:25pm

Driving NHS reform through innovation and value

The message in the 10 Year Health Plan is clear – the NHS must reform if it is to survive. There is a real drive to put patients and local services at the heart of its recovery, and to provide more convenient care in people’s neighbourhoods. How is NICE helping commissioners and providers get the care to patients fast, at a time of increased financial and workforce pressures? Could digital technologies, genomics and the introduction of biosimilars be routes to success? Does NICE need to do more to update and decommission guidance where new evidence shows there is a better way?

Chair:

International collaboration to develop health technology assessment methods

Find out how NICE is working with international partners to critically and independently research some of the most pressing topics in global health decision making. Discover how NICE is exploring whether additional benefits – beyond increased life expectancy and quality of life – should be captured in the evaluation of new medicines and health technologies, in partnership with the USA-based Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) and the Canadian Drug Agency (CDA-AMC). Hear directly from those involved about the role the new Health Economics Methods Advisory (HEMA) group will play in examining new health technology assessment (HTA) methods.

Chair:

People and communities: How they can improve the health of the nation

The voice of people and communities is integral to the future of healthcare and there are new and exciting opportunities within the 10 Year Health Plan to listen to understand, and to respond with action. In this session we will explore what great involvement and engagement looks like and how this can inform healthcare decision making to improve care outcomes and experience for our people and communities.  

Chair:

2:35pm to 3:35pm

Supporting effective decision making: Delivering more usable NICE guidance

How is NICE supporting health and care practitioners, commissioners and providers to make decisions more easily using its guidance? What is being done to improve the usability of NICE guidance and reimagine products that better meet our users’ needs? How is NICE collaborating to make the most of technological innovation to help users easily find the information they need, when they need it?

Chair:

In conversation with NICE and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)

The 10 Year Health Plan commits to future-proofing regulatory bodies: find out how NICE and the MHRA are working together to speed up evaluations and ensure patients get safe, effective treatments sooner. Learn about a streamlined and simplified approval journey for new medicines, with joint scientific advice and closely aligned timelines across both organisations. Discuss how this will benefit patients and innovators and help make the UK a destination of choice for the life sciences sector.

Chair:

  • Richard Vize, journalist and public policy analyst and NICE Conference 2026 chair.

In the spotlight: A unique partnership to address health inequalities

Reducing health inequalities is part of NICE’s DNA – achieving fair outcomes is central to the advice we provide. This year, NICE embarked on a groundbreaking new partnership with the NHS Race and Health Observatory in a bid to tackle persistent and systemic ethnic health inequalities. What has been achieved so far? What more needs to be done? How can we learn from this approach to help address other areas of health inequalities?

Chair:

3:35pm to 4pm

Afternoon break, refreshments and networking 

4pm to 4:50pm

A strengthened role for NICE in driving value and maximising population health: a whole lifecycle approach to developing and maintaining guidance

The 10 Year Health Plan strengthens NICE’s role in driving better value by continually re-evaluating clinical pathways. Discover how a whole lifecycle approach to guidance production will enable us to expand access to cost-effective innovations, provide clearer decision pathways for clinicians, and phase out less effective innovations to create financial headroom for tomorrow’s breakthroughs.  

Chair:

4:50pm to 5pm

Final closing remarks and reflections on the day 

Speaker:

5pm to 6pm

Close of conference followed by a networking reception

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