Prime Highlights-
- Manchester Sandbox will test AI-enabled medical devices with real patients and clinicians as part of everyday NHS care.
- Programme aims to identify patients at higher risk of complications from long-term conditions, allowing earlier treatment.
Key Facts-
- MHRA partners with Manchester NHS to test emerging health technologies.
- Evidence from Manchester could guide wider NHS technology adoption.
Background-
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has partnered with Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust to test emerging healthcare technologies, including AI-enabled medical devices, in real NHS settings. The collaboration aims to speed up the safe adoption of innovations that prove effective for patients.
The partnership’s first major initiative, the Manchester Sandbox, will let technologies be deployed and evaluated alongside patients and clinicians as part of everyday healthcare.
The programme will generate evidence on the safety, effectiveness and impact of new tools, helping the NHS decide which ones suit wider adoption. The first technologies are expected to include AI-enabled devices designed to identify patients at higher risk of complications from long-term conditions, allowing earlier support and treatment.
Lawrence Tallon, chief executive of the MHRA, said AI and other emerging technologies carry strong potential to improve patient care, and Manchester brings together the NHS, innovators, researchers and regulators to explore how they work in practice.
MFT chief executive Mark Cubbon said bringing partners together earlier would create a clearer path from developing healthcare technologies to adopting them safely, adding that patients should not have to choose between access and safety.
Health Innovation Minister James Frith said the programme would test technologies under strict oversight while helping identify those that could benefit patients most.
MFT and the MHRA plan to hold a roundtable later this year to shape future projects and will invite device developers to join the next phase.
