In 1999, ASERNIP-S (Australian Safety and Efficacy Register of New Interventional Procedures - Surgical), together with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons' New Technology Committee, established an Australian based horizon scanning project: NET-S (New and Emerging Techniques - Surgical) to provide an early warning system for identifying new and emerging surgical techniques and technologies into Australian healthcare.

In late 2003, NET-S became a member of the Australian and New Zealand Horizon Scanning Network (ANZHSN), which seeks to provide policy and planning advice to Australian State and Territory Governments and the New Zealand Ministry of Health on the potential impact of emerging health technologies on their respective health systems.

The activities of NET-S aim to parallel those of other centres recently established throughout the world. Additionally the aim is to derive unique methodologies to improve the specificity and efficacy of the process:

• NET-S focuses its scanning activities on surgical techniques and technologies, thereby intensifying searching capabilities in the area of surgery.
• NET-S has developed an approach that eliminates those methods that have shown to be less than effective in identifying new technologies.
• By communicating directly with Fellows of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, NET-S has an enormous advantage over searching processes that focus primarily on published literature.

NET-S directs some of its outputs to the ASERNIP-S programme, thereby enhancing its activities through having access to an innovative and effective early warning system.