Health care technology - encompasses all methods used by health professionals to promote health, prevent and treat disease, and improve rehabilitation and long-term care. These methods include pharmaceuticals, devices, procedures, programmes, settings, and public health activities.

Emerging technology - generally a technology that is not yet adopted by the health care system:

• pharmaceuticals – will usually be in phase II or phase III clinical trials or pre-launch,
• medical devices – will usually be prior to marketing, or within 6 months of marketing, or marketed but <10% diffused or localised to a few centres.

New technology - a technology in the phase of adoption that has only been available for clinical use for a short time and will generally be in the launch or early post-marketing stages.

Early warning system - a stable unit with reliable connections and sources which aims to:

1. identify new and emerging health technologies,
2. filter and prioritise those technologies most likely to have a significant future impact and
3. make an assessment of either potential impact or clinical and cost effectiveness.

An early warning system and an early warning assessment may be an integral part of the prioritisation process for health technology assessment (HTA) activities.

Horizon-scanning – is the identification phase of an early warning system.

Interventional Procedure - A procedure that is used for diagnosis or treatment that involves incision, puncture, entry into a body cavity, acoustic energy or electromagnetic radiation (e.g. radiotherapy).