Manchester NHS-MHRA partnership to test new technologies in real-world care
pharmafile | September 10, 2026 | News story | | AI-enabled medical devices, Manchester, NHS-MHRA partnership, patient care
Patients in Manchester could gain faster access to promising healthcare technologies through a new partnership between the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT).
The partnership will establish a Manchester Sandbox, enabling innovative technologies to be tested in real NHS settings and generating evidence on their safety, effectiveness and impact in day-to-day clinical practice.
The programme will initially focus on technologies including AI-enabled medical devices, such as tools designed to identify patients at higher risk of complications from long-term conditions so that they can receive earlier support and treatment.
The MHRA said the initiative is intended to address a key challenge in healthcare innovation: technologies may demonstrate potential during development, but their performance in real-world clinical environments needs to be understood before they can be more widely adopted.
The sandbox will bring regulators, healthcare providers and innovators together earlier in the development process, using proportionate oversight and defined safeguards while technologies are deployed with patients and clinicians.
MHRA Chief Executive Lawrence Tallon said: “AI and other emerging technologies have enormous potential to improve patient care. The challenge is understanding how they work in practice and where they can make the biggest difference.
“Manchester brings together the NHS, innovators, researchers and regulators to do exactly that. The learning from this programme could help shape how safe and effective technologies are introduced across the country, helping more patients benefit from innovation.”
MFT Chief Executive Mark Cubbon said: “Patients should benefit from innovation as quickly as possible, but they should never have to choose between access and safety.
“This partnership brings together key partners earlier in the process so we can understand what works and how new technologies perform in real healthcare settings.”
The programme will also examine regulatory approaches that can respond to the changing needs of healthcare, with learning shared across the NHS to support wider adoption of technologies shown to work.
MFT and the MHRA will convene a roundtable later this year involving regulators, healthcare providers, innovators, researchers and patient and public representatives. The MHRA will also invite medical device developers to express interest in participating in the next phase.
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