| Summary: | The Diagnostics Assessment Programme (DAP) is part of NICE's activities on evaluating medical technologies. The DAP evaluates diagnostic technologies that have the potential to improve health outcomes but whose introduction is likely to be associated with an overall increase in cost to the NHS. There are various types of diagnostic tests and technologies, and DAP concentrates on pathological tests, imaging, endoscopy, algorithms or test combinations, and physiological measurement, because these represent most of the investigations performed on patients. It does not include tests based on clinical sign detection (as part of a 'bedside' clinical examination not involving use of instruments or devices). Diagnostic technologies may be used for various purposes: diagnosis, clinical monitoring, screening, treatment triage, assessing stages of disease progression, risk stratification, etc. All of these uses of diagnostic technologies fall within the remit of the Programme. This programme manual describes how the NICE Diagnostics Assessment Programme develops guidance. The programme is designed to ensure that robust guidance is developed for the NHS in an open, transparent and timely way, allowing appropriate input from stakeholders
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