Novel treatment paradigms can be transformative in enhancing patient care quality, safety, and NHS efficiency. The 10-Year Plan for Health poses an opportunity to reflect on the potential of novel treatment paradigms. Responsible decision-making today can balance immediate NHS priorities with long-term improvements, leveraging the UK's strategic advantages to ensure care excellence and NHS sustainability for the future.

Better and more efficient NHS care through innovative approaches to treatment

Sonja Marjanovic, Agne Ulyte, Hampton Toole, Zuzanna Marciniak-Nuqui, Stephanie Stockwell, Avery Adams, Manon Richard-Sheridan, Sorana Bucseneanu, Sarah Parkinson, Nick Fahy

ResearchPublished Jun 26, 2025

Novel treatment paradigms can be transformative in their potential to enhance patient care quality, safety and NHS efficiency. The government's 10-Year Plan for Health poses a unique opportunity to reflect on areas of opportunity in novel treatment paradigms. Drawing on desk research and stakeholder consultations, this discussion paper outlines a vision for "what good looks like" in thinking about adopting novel treatment paradigms and proposes strategic actions to create a supportive ecosystem for innovation. Key opportunities include personalised and precise therapies, such as those based on genomic medicine and synthetic biology could enhance treatment effectiveness, offer longer acting treatments and reduce hospitalisations and resource wastage on ineffective treatments for specific patient profiles. Emerging technologies like regenerative medicine, mRNA vaccines, and digitally enabled mental health therapies and novel biologics such as obesity drugs show promise in tackling major public health challenges and reducing health inequalities, though their adoption requires addressing affordability and scalability.

This paper highlights the UK's global strengths in life sciences and health technology research, emphasising the NHS's unique position as a testbed for clinical trials. Recommendations include investing in data-sharing infrastructure, streamlining R&D approval processes, prioritising funding for mature technologies and addressing inequalities in access to treatments. It also calls for cross-sector collaboration, public engagement and workforce training to support the adoption of innovative therapies. Ultimately, this paper argues that responsible decision-making today can balance immediate NHS priorities with long-term improvements, leveraging the UK's strategic advantages to ensure care excellence and NHS sustainability for the future.

Key Findings

  • Novel treatment paradigms can be transformative in their potential to enhance patient care quality, safety, and NHS efficiency.
  • Personalised and precise therapeutic approaches, such as those based on genomic medicine and synthetic biology could enhance treatment effectiveness, offer longer acting treatments and reduce hospitalisations and resource wastage on ineffective treatments for specific patient profiles.
  • Emerging technologies like regenerative medicine, mRNA vaccines, and digitally enabled mental health therapies and novel biologics such as obesity drugs show promise in tackling major public health challenges and reducing health inequalities, though their adoption requires addressing affordability and scalability.
  • The creation of a supportive ecosystem for innovation in and around the NHS is key, and requires investing in data-sharing infrastructure, streamlining R&D approval processes, regulatory efficiency, better demand-signalling in the health system and prioritising investments in consideration of the levels of technology maturity and potential for impact over the next decade.
  • Workforce training, cross-sector collaboration, and public engagement are necessary to accelerate adoption of novel treatments while addressing inequalities in access to treatments.
  • The NHS is a unique testbed for clinical trials, offering opportunities to develop and trial novel therapies, which can also attract global investment and generate economic benefits.
  • There is a need to balance addressing immediate NHS priorities, such as reducing waiting times, with a visionary commitment to long-term improvements.
  • By leveraging the UK's strategic strengths in life sciences and health technology, decision-makers can ensure care excellence, health equity, and NHS sustainability well into the future.

Recommendations

  • Mainstream training on novel therapies into professional education and development alongside wider incentives for engaging NHS staff with innovation
  • Invest in data infrastructure and evidence pipelines
  • Prioritise investments considering the levels of technology maturity and potential for impact
  • Streamline R&D approval process and establish clear and flexible regulation
  • Establish requisite physical and technical infrastructure is to scale novel treatments
  • Enhance collaboration and establish cross-sector governance to coordinate funding, research, and implementation
  • Pursue timely public and patient engagement and address inequalities by ensuring the relevance of and access new treatments for diverse populations

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Marjanovic, Sonja, Agne Ulyte, Hampton Toole, Zuzanna Marciniak-Nuqui, Stephanie Stockwell, Avery Adams, Manon Richard-Sheridan, Sorana Bucseneanu, Sarah Parkinson, and Nick Fahy, Better and more efficient NHS care through innovative approaches to treatment. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2025. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA3842-1.html.
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