The sandbox approach originated in the financial technologies sector and since then has started to be used within healthcare for developing regulatory policies relating to innovative technologies.

This approach has considerable potential to be used in accelerating health technology assessment (HTA) methods and policy developments, particularly in response to new innovations.

The success of applying this approach in HTA should be facilitated by consortium working, clarity regarding scope, focus on innovative technologies with no clear appraisal pathway and the use of an anticipatory model.