HARMONIZATION OF ETHICS IN HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT: A REVISION OF THE SOCRATIC APPROACH

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bjørn Hofmann ◽  
Sigrid Droste ◽  
Wija Oortwijn ◽  
Irina Cleemput ◽  
Dario Sacchini
Keyword(s):  
Health Technology Assessment ◽  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Expert Panel ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Joint Effort ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
E Mail

Background: Ethics has been part of health technology assessment (HTA) from its beginning in the 1970s, and is currently part of HTA definitions. Several methods in ethics have been used in HTA. Some approaches have been developed especially for HTA, such as the Socratic approach, which has been used for a wide range of health technologies. The Socratic approach is used in several ways, and there is a need for harmonization to promote its usability and the transferability of its results. Accordingly, the objective of this study was to stimulate experts in ethics and HTA to revise the Socratic approach.Methods: Based on the current literature and experiences in applying methods in ethics, a panel of ethics experts involved in HTA critically analyzed the limitations of the Socratic approach during a face-to-face workshop. On the basis of this analysis a revision of the Socratic approach was agreed on after deliberation in several rounds through e-mail correspondence.Results: Several limitations with the Socratic approach are identified and addressed in the revised version which consists of a procedure of six steps, 7 main questions and thirty-three explanatory and guiding questions. The revised approach has a broader scope and provides more guidance than its predecessor. Methods for information retrieval have been elaborated.Conclusion: The presented revision of the Socratic approach is the result of a joint effort of experts in the field of ethics and HTA. Consensus is reached in the expert panel on an approach that is considered to be more clear, comprehensive, and applicable for addressing ethical issues in HTA.

OP101 Do We Need To Extend Health Technology Assessment To Health Enhancement Assessment?

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. 46-46
Author(s):  
Bjørn Hofmann
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Technology Assessment ◽  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Literature Search ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Wide Range

INTRODUCTION:Several health technologies used for therapy can also be used for health enhancement. Drugs stimulating cognitive abilities are but one example. Health Technology Assessment (HTA) has not been developed for assessing enhancements. This raises the question of how HTA should address the blurred distinction between therapy and enhancement. Should we (i) carve out a distinction between therapy and enhancement and limit HTA to therapy, (ii) use HTA for both therapy and enhancement (with some modifications), or (iii) should we develop a separate health enhancement assessment (HEA)?METHODS:A literature search of the medical, philosophical, and bioethical literature was conducted for debates, arguments, and suggested solutions to the issue of therapy versus enhancement.RESULTS:The same improvement in health may be therapeutic in one patient, but an enhancement in another. Moreover, both therapy and enhancement share the same goal: increased health and wellbeing. A wide range of arguments try to establish a difference between therapy and enhancement. They refer to naturalness, rehabilitation, normality, species-typical functioning/potential, disease, sustainability, and responsibility. On closer scrutiny few of these arguments do the job in bolstering the therapy-enhancement distinction. We already use a wide range of means to extend human abilities. Moreover, the therapy-enhancement distinction raises a wide range of ethical issues that are relevant for the assessment of a number of emerging health technologies.CONCLUSIONS:Existing HTA methodology can address a wide range of non-therapeutic health enhancements. However, a series of broader issues related to the goal of health care and responsibility for altering human evolution may not be addressed within traditional HTA frameworks. Specific HEAs may therefore be helpful.

scholarly journals Examination of Opinions of the Senior Health Managers Working in Private Hospitals on Health Technology Assessment

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehmet Akif Erişen ◽  
Fatma Özlem Yılmaz
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Health Technology Assessment ◽  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Private Hospitals ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Assessment Approach ◽  
Health Administrators

INTRODUCTION: In this study, it was aimed to evaluate the views and opinions of the health administrators, who are working in the private hospitals in Konya province centre about health technology assessment and applications. METHODS: Qualitative research methods have been used in research, and phenomologic method is preferred. The research was conducted using face-to-face interviews with health administrators working in private hospitals serving in the centre of Konya and accepting to participate in the research. A semi-structured interview form was used as a data collection tool in the survey. RESULTS: As a result of the analysis, sub-themes were created under the headings of health technologies, health technology assessment, health technology assessment applications in Turkey, health technology assessment approach of private hospitals, establishment of health technology assessment department, health technology assessment applications of the respondents’ hospitals and future position of health technology assessment. And the findings under the created themes are interpreted. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The managers had various information about health technology assessment applications however it was limited. In this respect, it would be beneficial to provide a general education about health technology assessment in order to increase awareness and application of health technology assessment practices.

COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT OF COMPLEX TECHNOLOGIES: INTEGRATING VARIOUS ASPECTS IN HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 570-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Bakke Lysdahl ◽  
Kati Mozygemba ◽  
Jacob Burns ◽  
Jan Benedikt Brönneke ◽  
James B. Chilcott ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Technology Assessment ◽  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Stakeholder Involvement ◽  
Complex Interventions ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Stakeholder Perspectives ◽  
Wide Range

Objectives: Despite recent development of health technology assessment (HTA) methods, there are still methodological gaps for the assessment of complex health technologies. The INTEGRATE-HTA guidance for effectiveness, economic, ethical, socio-cultural, and legal aspects, deals with challenges when assessing complex technologies, such as heterogeneous study designs, multiple stakeholder perspectives, and unpredictable outcomes. The objective of this article is to outline this guidance and describe the added value of integrating these assessment aspects.Methods: Different methods were used to develop the various parts of the guidance, but all draw on existing, published knowledge and were supported by stakeholder involvement. The guidance was modified after application in a case study and in response to feedback from internal and external reviewers.Results: The guidance consists of five parts, addressing five core aspects of HTA, all presenting stepwise approaches based on the assessment of complexity, context, and stakeholder involvement. The guidance on effectiveness, health economics and ethics aspects focus on helping users choose appropriate, or further develop, existing methods. The recommendations are based on existing methods’ applicability for dealing with problems arising with complex interventions. The guidance offers new frameworks to identify socio-cultural and legal issues, along with overviews of relevant methods and sources.Conclusions: The INTEGRATE-HTA guidance outlines a wide range of methods and facilitates appropriate choices among them. The guidance enables understanding of how complexity matters for HTA and brings together assessments from disciplines, such as epidemiology, economics, ethics, law, and social theory. This indicates relevance for a broad range of technologies.

scholarly journals Tackling ethical issues in health technology assessment: A proposed framework

2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Burls ◽  
Lorraine Caron ◽  
Ghislaine Cleret de Langavant ◽  
Wybo Dondorp ◽  
Christa Harstall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Technology Assessment ◽  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Methodological Approaches

Objectives: Values are intrinsic to the use of health technology assessments (HTAs) in health policy, but neglecting value assumptions in HTA makes their results appear more robust or normatively neutral than may be the case. Results of a 2003 survey by the International Network of Agencies for Health Technology Assessment (INAHTA) revealed the existence of disparate methods for making values and ethical issues explicit when conducting HTA.Methods: An Ethics Working Group, with representation from sixteen agencies, was established to develop a framework for addressing ethical issues in HTA. Using an iterative approach, with email exchanges and face-to-face workshops, a report on Handling Ethical Issues was produced.Results: This study describes the development process and the agreed upon framework for reflexive ethical analysis that aims to uncover and explore the ethical implications of technologies through an integrated, context-sensitive approach and situates the proposed framework within previous work in the development of ethics analysis in HTA.Conclusions: It is important that methodological approaches to address ethical reflection in HTA be integrative and context sensitive. The question-based approach described and recommended here is meant to elicit this type of reflection in a way that can be used by HTA agencies. The questions proposed are considered only as a starting point for handling ethics issues, but their use would represent a significant improvement over much of the existing practice.

Toward a procedure for integrating moral issues in health technology assessment

2005 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 312-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bjørn Hofmann
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
Health Technology Assessment ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Theoretical Foundation ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Wide Range

Objectives: Although ethics has been on the agenda in health technology assessment (HTA) since its inception, the integration of moral issues is still not standard and is performed in a vast variety of ways. Therefore, there is a need for a procedure for integrating moral issues in HTA.Methods: Literature review of existing approaches together with application of various theories in moral philosophy and axiology.Results: The article develops a set of questions that addresses a wide range of moral issues related to the assessment and implementation of health technology. The issues include general moral issues and moral issues related to stakeholders, methodology, characteristics of technology, and to the HTA process itself. The questions form a kind of checklist for use in HTAs.Conclusions: The presented approach for integrating moral issues in HTA has a broad theoretical foundation and has shown to be useful in practice. Integrating ethical issues in HTAs can be of great importance with respect to the dissemination of HTA results and in efficient health policy making.

scholarly journals HOW TO AVOID GIVING THE RIGHT ANSWERS TO THE WRONG QUESTIONS: THE NEED FOR INTEGRATED ASSESSMENTS OF COMPLEX HEALTH TECHNOLOGIES

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 541-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ansgar Gerhardus ◽  
Wija Oortwijn ◽  
Gert Jan van der Wilt
Keyword(s):  
Health Technology Assessment ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Patient Centered ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
The Right ◽  
Integrated Assessments

Health technologies are becoming increasingly complex and contemporary health technology assessment (HTA) is only partly equipped to address this complexity. The project “Integrated assessments of complex health technologies” (INTEGRATE-HTA), funded by the European Commission, was initiated with the overall objective to develop concepts and methods to enable patient-centered, integrated assessments of the effectiveness, and the economic, social, cultural, and ethical issues of complex technologies that take context and implementation issues into account. The project resulted in a series of guidances that should support the work of HTA scientists and decision makers alike.

scholarly journals The Use of the Health Technology Assessment for Technology Acquisition in Hospitals

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (21) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandra Cano Muñoz ◽  
Diana Marcela Troncoso Escobar ◽  
Rosiamry Terezinha De Almeida ◽  
Nayibe Bonilla Mosquera ◽  
Sandra Patricia Usaquén Perilla
Keyword(s):  
Health Technology Assessment ◽  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Technology Acquisition ◽  
The Social

Decision makers at the national and local level of health systems require evidence of effectiveness, safety and costs of health technologies for resource allocation. In this sense Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is a favorable tool considering it is a multidisciplinary process to evaluate the benefits as well as the social, economic, organizational and ethical issues of a health technology. The aim of this study was to review the literature in order to identify the attributes used in the process of technology acquisition. It was analyzed the attributes of HTA with the purpose of classifying them, to see which are the most recommended for acquisition in hospitals. The identified literature indicated that not only the clinical and economic attributes were considered, but also attributes related to the context of the hospital such as the effect of technology on other hospital services and others associated with the organization

Core competencies for ethics experts in health technology assessment

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 534-539
Author(s):  
Pietro Refolo ◽  
Kenneth Bond ◽  
Bart Bloemen ◽  
Ilona Autti-Rämö ◽  
Bjørn Hofmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Technology Assessment ◽  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Core Competencies ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Ethical Analysis ◽  
Specific Knowledge ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Ethical Expertise ◽  
Ethics Expertise

AbstractObjectivesThere is no consensus on who might be qualified to conduct ethical analysis in the field of health technology assessment (HTA). Is there a specific expertise or skill set for doing this work? The aim of this article is to (i) clarify the concept of ethics expertise and, based on this, (ii) describe and specify the characteristics of ethics expertise in HTA.MethodsBased on the current literature and experiences in conducting ethical analysis in HTA, a group of members of the Health Technology Assessment International (HTAi) Interest Group on Ethical Issues in HTA critically analyzed the collected information during two face-to-face workshops. On the basis of the analysis, working definitions of “ethics expertise” and “core competencies” of ethics experts in HTA were developed. This paper reports the output of the workshop and subsequent revisions and discussions online among the authors.ResultsExpertise in a domain consists of both explicit and tacit knowledge and is acquired by formal training and social learning. There is a ubiquitous ethical expertise shared by most people in society; nevertheless, some people acquire specialist ethical expertise. To become an ethics expert in the field of HTA, one needs to acquire general knowledge about ethical issues as well as specific knowledge of the ethical domain in HTA. The core competencies of ethics experts in HTA consist of three fundamental elements: knowledge, skills, and attitudes.ConclusionsThe competencies described here can be used by HTA agencies and others involved in HTA to call attention to and strengthen ethical analysis in HTA.

scholarly journals Estimating an EQ-5D-3L Value Set for Romania Using Time Trade-Off

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (14) ◽  
pp. 7415
Author(s):  
Marian Sorin Paveliu ◽  
Elena Olariu ◽  
Raluca Caplescu ◽  
Yemi Oluboyede ◽  
Ileana-Gabriela Niculescu-Aron ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Technology Assessment ◽  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Health State ◽  
Health States ◽  
Value Set ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Related Quality

Objective: To provide health-related quality of life (HRQoL) data to support health technology assessment (HTA) and reimbursement decisions in Romania, by developing a country-specific value set for the EQ-5D-3L questionnaire. Methods: We used the cTTO method to elicit health state values using a computer-assisted personal interviewing approach. Interviews were standardized following the most recent version of the EQ-VT protocol developed by the EuroQoL Foundation. Thirty EQ-5D-3L health states were randomly assigned to respondents in blocks of three. Econometric modeling was used to estimate values for all 243 states described by the EQ-5D-3L. Results: Data from 1556 non-institutionalized adults aged 18 years and older, selected from a national representative sample, were used to build the value set. All tested models were logically consistent; the final model chosen to generate the value set was an interval regression model. The predicted EQ-5D-3L values ranged from 0.969 to 0.399, and the relative importance of EQ-5D-3L dimensions was in the following order: mobility, pain/discomfort, self-care, anxiety/depression, and usual activities. Conclusions: These results can support reimbursement decisions and allow regional cross-country comparisons between health technologies. This study lays a stepping stone in the development of a health technology assessment process more driven by locally relevant data in Romania.

Designing an interactive model of factors affecting the health technology assessment (HTA) in Iran

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 301-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammadkarim Bahadori ◽  
Ramin Ravangard ◽  
Mahya Tohidi Nezhad ◽  
Naeimeh Pourtaheri ◽  
Sayyed Morteza Hosseini-Shokouh
Keyword(s):  
Health Technology Assessment ◽  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Ethical Dimension ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
Interactive Model

PurposeAccording to the great importance of community health as well as the ever-increasing development of health technologies, the importance of designing an interactive model of factors affecting health technology assessment (HTA) can be highlighted. The purpose of designing and implementing the framework of health information system assessment is to ensure that the required accurate data which are necessary to measure the main health indicators are available. The purpose of this paper is to design an interactive model of factors affecting HTA.Design/methodology/approachThis is a cross-sectional, descriptive-analytic study conducted in the Iran Ministry of Health and Medical Education in the second half of 2017. A sample of 60 experts and professionals working in the field of health technologies are selected using purposive and snowball sampling methods. Two researcher-made questionnaires are used to collect the required data. The collected data are analyzed using decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) and MATLAB R2013a.FindingsThe results showed that “Legal dimension,” “safety,” “Effectiveness” and “Social dimension” were the affecting factors and net causes, and “Current application,” “Knowledge of technology,” “Ethical dimension,” “Costs” and “Organizational dimension” were the affected factors and net effects in the interactive model. Furthermore, “Legal dimension” with the coordinates C: [1.88, 1.27] and “Ethical dimension” with the coordinates C: [1.75, −75] were known as the most affecting and most affected factors in the interactive model, respectively.Originality/valueThe DEMATEL model is an appropriate tool for managers and policy makers to structure and prioritize factors influencing the HTA. Policy makers and decision makers can use this model for identifying relationships among factors and prioritize them. Because health policy makers and managers have a major role in formulating the regulations and guidelines related to the HTA, they should pay more attention to the legal considerations in their decisions and use the management tools to move the available resources toward implementing and enforcing rules and guidelines related to the HTA.

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