In-vitro diagnostic tests

On March 26, 2026, NHS England published the final version of the 2026/27 NHS Payment Scheme, effective from April 1, 2026. While the overall payment model remains largely unchanged, several targeted updates have been introduced. These include new blended payments for urgent and emergency care, radiotherapy, and genomic testing, as well as two new Best Practice Tariffs (BPTs) to incentivize day case procedures and support 10 Year Health Plan referral-to-treatment (RTT) priorities.

As of March 2026, the Scottish Health Technologies Group is working on health technology assessments in several areas, including diagnostic imaging, e-health, endoscopy, ENT, in-vitro diagnostics, and radiotherapy.

On March 23, 2026, the Norwegian Directorate of Health released an updated version (v.79) of the Norwegian Laboratory Code (NLK) system, along with associated tariffs, for both state and private laboratories. A total of 63 new codes were added in the biochemistry, microbiology, clinical pharmacology, and immunology fields.

In March 2026, the Galician Agency for Health Technology Assessment (Avalia-t) is working on several HTAs, including in cardiovascular, dermatology, e-health, gastrointestinal, interventional radiology, robotic surgery, in-vitro diagnostics, peripheral vascular, neurology and neurosurgery, neuromodulation, and some other fields.

In January 2026, the Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre (KCE) published one Health Technology Assessment report on blood-based biomarkers in mild traumatic brain injury and two Health Service Research (HSR) reports addressing chronic pain management and the shift from inpatient to day and ambulatory care.

In February 2026, Health Technology Wales (HTW) accomplished one full appraisal on capsule sponge devices for the detection of Barrett’s esophagus and early-stage esophageal cancer. Additionally, two Med Tech-related Topic Exploration Reports were published in the urology and gynecology fields.

In February 2026, the Swedish Medical Technologies Product (MTP) Council issued two recommendations to Swedish regions within the national framework for the Orderly Introduction of Medical Technologies. The first recommendation concerns MR-guided focused ultrasound (Exablate Prime), which is recommended for patients with severe essential tremor. The second is an interim recommendation advising regions to refrain from introducing diagnostic blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease until the MTP Council has conducted a comprehensive assessment and issued final recommendations.

A new version of the Nomenclature of Medical Biology Procedures (NABM 102), effective from March 3, 2026, was published in France. Changes include the introduction of one new code and the deletion and modification of several codes.

On February 7, 2026, the Ministry of Health, Family, Autonomy and People with Disability released an update of the 2014 regulations on conditions of performing IVD tests outside the medical biology laboratory. The new regulation expands the list of locations eligible for point-of-care testing (POCT) and provides an explicit list of tests that can be performed as POCT, and links them to eligible locations. It also introduces a quality assurance framework, accreditation requirements, and mandates that comprehensive conventions be concluded between the remote sites providing POCT and the responsible laboratories.

On February 4, 2026, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England published the National Cancer Plan for England, setting out a decade-long, technology-enabled transformation of cancer services, with substantial commitments to diagnostics, AI, genomics, robotic surgery, digital tools, and innovation-driven care pathways. The key ambition is that, by 2035, three out of four people diagnosed with cancer will be cancer-free, or living well with cancer after five years.

In January 2026, nine new topics were added to the Implementation Agenda of the Care Evaluation and Appropriate Use (ZE&GG) program, requiring healthcare providers to implement these evidence-based practices in daily care and to demonstrate results within two years. The topics concerned the in-vitro diagnostic, gastrointestinal, and ENT fields. Additionally, 16 topics were removed from the agenda, as most had been sufficiently implemented and others were no longer relevant.

In early February 2026, the French National Authority for Health (HAS) opened the call for applications for the evaluation of medical procedures and in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) tests to be included in its 2027 working program. The deadline for submission is May 4, 2026.