Table 1.
Examples of sandboxes identified through the review
| Location | Name | Organisation(s) | Aim | Year Reported | Still Active? (Y/N) | References | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Outcomes focused | UK | HealthTech Regulatory Sandbox | ICO, Data Guardian, NICE | Cross sector collaboration for ensuring successful implementation into NHS | 2018 | Y | [14] |
| UK | CQC Regulatory Sandbox | Care Quality Commission | Defining ‘good care’, and how to facilitate and deploy new innovations | 2019 | Y | [11, 15–17] | |
| UK (Scotland) | Care Inspectorate Sandbox | Care Inspectorate | Focus on restructuring social care services to suit evolving care system | 2018 | Y | [13] | |
| UK | NHS Test Bed programme | NHS | Removing barriers to uptake of innovative technologies within the NHS; test and evaluate the impact of digital innovations in real-world settings | 2015 | Y | [18–22] | |
| Singapore | Licensing Experimentation and Adaptation Programme (LEAP) | Ministry of Health | Promote an effective way of supporting innovation while maintaining patient safety and welfare, through improved interaction between industry and regulators | 2018 | Y | [23] | |
| Japan | Regulatory Sandbox Framework | Government of Japan | Facilitate development of innovative technologies and business models in Japan | 2018 | Y | [24] | |
| Data focused | UK | ICO Sandbox Programme | ICO | Delivering real benefit for the UK public through innovations in technology and use of data | 2019 | Y | [25] |
| UK | Health Data Research UK Sandbox | HDR UK | Virtual environment that offers access to large scale health data for the development of products, services or innovations that benefit the population | 2019 | Y | [26] | |
| UK | Kernow Health CIC Sandbox | Kernow Health CIC | Opportunity to sample and improve products in real-life NHS clinical environments | 2019 | Y | [27] | |
| UK | Digital Health Jersey Sandbox | Digital Jersey | Providing testbed environments to companies that are developing digital health solutions | 2018 | Y | [28] | |
| Multiple (Europe) | eIT Health Digital Sandbox | European Institute of Innovation and Technology | Improve access to registries, biobanks, and other digital health sources for SMEs | 2019 | Y | [29] | |
| USA | Digital Health Sandbox Program | Massachusetts eHealth Institute | Support product development within digital health companies and promote the use of sandbox environments to a varied user base | 2019 | Y | [30] | |
| USA | ROMOP and PatientExplore | University of California, San Francisco | Provision of sandbox servers consisting of synthetic patient data for users to test the tools and access synthetic data sources. | 2018 | Y | [31, 32] |
CIC Community Interest Company, CQC Care Quality Commission, eIT European Institute of Innovation and Technology, HDR Health Data Research, ICO Information Commissioner’s Office, NHS National Health Service, NICE National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, ROMOP R-Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership