scholarly journals Landscape analysis of health technology assessment (HTA): systems and practices in Asia

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 416-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yot Teerawattananon ◽  
Waranya Rattanavipapong ◽  
Lydia Wenxin Lin ◽  
Saudamini Vishwanath Dabak ◽  
Brent Gibbons ◽  
...  

AbstractThis paper explores the characteristics of health technology assessment (HTA) systems and practices in Asia. Representatives from nine countries were surveyed to understand each step of the HTA pathway. The analysis finds that although there are similarities in the processes of HTA and its application to inform decision making, there is variation in the number of topics assessed and the stakeholders involved in each step of the process. There is limited availability of resources and technical capacity and countries adopt different means to overcome these challenges by accepting industry submissions or adapting findings from other regions. Inclusion of stakeholders in the process of selecting topics, generating evidence, and making funding recommendations is critical to ensure relevance of HTA to country priorities. Lessons from this analysis may be instructive to other countries implementing HTA processes and inform future research on the feasibility of implementing a harmonized HTA system in the region.

Author(s):  
Olina Efthymiadou ◽  
Panos Kanavos

Abstract Background Managed Entry Agreements (MEAs) are increasingly used to address uncertainties arising in the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) process due to immature evidence of new, high-cost medicines on their real-world performance and cost-effectiveness. The literature remains inconclusive on the HTA decision-making factors that influence the utilization of MEAs. We aimed to assess if the uptake of MEAs differs between countries and if so, to understand which HTA decision-making criteria play a role in determining such differences. Methods All oncology medicines approved since 2009 in Australia, England, Scotland, and Sweden were studied. Four categories of variables were collected from publicly available HTA reports of the above drugs: (i) Social Value Judgments (SVJs), (ii) Clinical/Economic evidence submitted, (iii) Interpretation of this evidence, and (iv) Funding decision. Conditional/restricted decisions were coded as Listed With Conditions (LWC) other than an MEA or LWC including an MEA (LWCMEA). Cohen's κ-scores measured the inter-rater agreement of countries on their LWCMEA outcomes and Pearson's chi-squared tests explored the association between HTA variables and LWCMEA outcomes. Results A total of 74 drug-indication pairs were found resulting in n = 296 observations; 8 percent (n = 23) were LWC and 55 percent (n = 163) were LWCMEA. A poor-to-moderate agreement existed between countries (−.29 < κ < .33) on LWCMEA decisions. Cross-country differences within the LWCMEA sample were partly driven by economic uncertainties and largely driven by SVJs considered across agencies. Conclusions A set of HTA-related variables driving the uptake of MEAs across countries was identified. These findings can be useful in future research aimed at informing country-specific, “best-practice” guidelines for successful MEA implementation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 300-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hector Eduardo Castro Jaramillo ◽  
Ornella Moreno-Mattar ◽  
Diana Osorio-Cuevas

Background: Health technology assessment (HTA) examines the consequences of the application of health technologies and is aimed at better informing decision-makers. Over the past 30 years, different countries have implemented HTA organizations. Colombia established by law its own HTA agency (IETS) in 2011 which started operations in November 2012. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of conducting and using HTA to inform decision-making in this context. Through a qualitative approach, ten “drivers” emerged with the ability to help or hinder HTA development in this context: availability and quality of data, implementation strategy, cultural aspects, local capacity, financial support, policy/political support, globalization, stakeholder pressure, health system context, and usefulness perception.Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with key HTA researchers, after following rigorous transcription, and thematic content analysis, those aspects that may be barriers or facilitator for HTA development and use in Colombia were identified.Results: Although HTA has become a tool to inform decision-making around the world, its use may vary according to setting. Determining those aspects which may enable or interfere with HTA development and use in Colombia may be useful for other countries when considering the establishment of HTA systems.Conclusions: The conceptual transferability of concepts like “drivers” with caveats may be of interest for similar settings trying to incorporate HTA processes and institutions into systematic decision-making.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Hollingworth ◽  
Ama Pokuaa Fenny ◽  
Su-Yeon Yu ◽  
Francis Ruiz ◽  
Kalipso Chalkidou

Abstract Background Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are moving towards universal health coverage. The process of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) can support decisions relating to benefit package design and service coverage. HTA involves institutional cooperation with agreed methods and procedural standards. We systematically reviewed the literature on policies and capacity building to support HTA institutionalisation in SSA. Methods We systematically reviewed the literature by searching major databases (PubMed, Embase, etc.) until June 2019 using terms considering three aspects: HTA; health policy, decision making; and SSA. We quantitatively extracted and descriptively analysed content and conducted a narrative synthesis eliciting themes from the selected literature, which varied in study type and apporach. Results Half of the 49 papers identified were primary research studies and mostly qualitative. Five countries were represented in six of ten studies; South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Cameroon, and Ethiopia. Half of first authors were from SSA. Most informants were policy makers. Five themes emerged: (1) use of HTA; (2) decision-making in HTA; (3) values and criteria for setting priority areas in HTA; (4) involving stakeholders in HTA; and (5) specific examples of progress in HTA in SSA. The first one was the main theme where there was little use of evidence and research in making policy. The awareness of HTA and economic evaluation was low, with inadequate expertise and a lack of local data and tools. Conclusions Despite growing interest in HTA in SSA countries, awareness remains low and HTA-related activities are uncoordinated and often disconnected from policy. Further training and skills development are needed, firmly linked to a strategy focusing on strengthening within-country partnerships, particularly among researchers and policy makers. The international community has an important role here by supporting policy- relevant technical assistance, highlighting that sustainable financing demands evidence-based processes for effective resource allocation, and catalysing knowledge-sharing opportunities among countries facing similar challenges.


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (S1) ◽  
pp. 48-48
Author(s):  
Leonor Varela-Lema ◽  
Janet Puñal-Riobóo ◽  
Paula Cantero-Muñoz ◽  
Maria José Faraldo-Vallés

IntroductionDecision making regarding national population-based prenatal and newborn screening policies is recognized to be highly challenging. This paper aims to describe the formalized collaboration that has been established between the Spanish National Public Health Screening Advisory Committee (PHSAC) and the Spanish Network of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) agencies to support the development of evidence- and consensus-based recommendations to support this process.MethodsIn-depth description and analysis of the strategic and methodological processes that have been implemented within the Spanish National Health System prenatal and newborn screening frameworks, with special emphasis on the role, actions, and responsibilities of HTA agencies.ResultsThe role of HTA agencies is threefold: (i) support the PHSAC by providing evidence on safety, effectiveness and cost/effectiveness of the screening tests/strategies, as well as contextualized information regarding costs, organizational, social, legal and ethical issues; (ii) collaborate with the PHSAC in the development of formal evidence- and consensus-based recommendations for defining population screening programs, when required; (iii) analyze real-world data that is generated by piloted programs. This paper will provide real-life examples of how these processes were implemented in practice, with a special focus on the development of the non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) policy. Recommendations for NIPT were developed by a multidisciplinary group based on the European network for Health Technology Assessment (EUnetHTA) rapid assessment report and the predictive models that were built using national statistics and other contextualized data.ConclusionsThe current work represents an innovative approach for prenatal and newborn screening policymaking, which are commonly difficult to evaluate due to the low quality of evidence and the confounding public health issues. The paper raises awareness regarding the importance of joint collaborations in areas where evidence is commonly insufficient for decision making.


2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don Husereau ◽  
Deborah A. Marshall ◽  
Adrian R. Levy ◽  
Stuart Peacock ◽  
Jeffrey S. Hoch

Background: Many jurisdictions delivering health care, including Canada, have developed guidance for conducting economic evaluation, often in the service of larger health technology assessment (HTA) and reimbursement processes. Like any health intervention, personalized medical (PM) interventions have costs and consequences that must be considered by reimbursement authorities with limited resources. However, current approaches to economic evaluation to support decision making have been largely developed from population-based approaches to therapy—that is, evaluating the costs and consequences of single interventions across single populations. This raises the issue as to whether these methods, as they are or more refined, are adequate to address more targeted approaches to therapy, or whether a new paradigm for assessing value in PM is required.Objectives: We describe specific issues relevant to the economic evaluation of diagnostics-based PM and assess whether current guidance for economic evaluation is sufficient to support decision making for PM interventions.Methods: Issues were identified through literature review and informal interviews with national and international experts (n = 10) in these analyses. This article elaborates on findings and discussion at a workshop held in Ottawa, Canada, in January 2012.Results: Specific issues related to better guiding economic evaluation of personalized medicine interventions include: how study questions are developed, populations are characterized, comparators are defined, effectiveness is evaluated, outcomes are valued and how resources are measured. Diagnostics-based PM also highlights the need for analyses outside of economic evaluation to support decision making.Conclusions: The consensus of this group of experts is that the economic evaluation of diagnostics-based PM may not require a new paradigm. However, greater complexity means that existing approaches and tools may require improvement to undertake these more analyses.


2000 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Banta ◽  
Wija Oortwijn

Health technology assessment (HTA) has become increasingly important in the European Union as an aid to decision making. As agencies and programs have been established, there is increasing attention to coordination of HTA at the European level, especially considering the growing role of the European Union in public health in Europe. This series of papers describes and analyzes the situation with regard to HTA in the 15 members of the European Union, plus Switzerland. The final paper draws some conclusions, especially concerning the future involvement of the European Commission in HTA.


2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. 30-31
Author(s):  
Tuija Ikonen ◽  
Heli Lähteenmäki

INTRODUCTION:Hospital mangers need information for decision making (1). Hospital-based health technology assessment (HTA) methods were tested out to support the budget planning of investments for a new building to be constructed for diagnostic and teaching units at a publicly funded tertiary care university hospital. The hospital board nominated an ad hoc working group to reassess all investment proposals for devices, equipment and furniture for the diagnostic or teaching units that intended to move into the new building. The need for assessment was obliged when the submitted proposals of the units exceeded two-fold the initially allocated investment budget.METHODS:Depending on the level of expenditure, all proposals were assessed by one of the following processes: (i) Proposals over EUR250,000 were evaluated by three to five person expert groups using multi-domain assessment adapting Hospital-based HTA-principles; (ii) Proposals between EUR50,000 and EUR250,000 were returned to the units for miniHTA-assessments by clinicians who submitted the initial proposals and (iii) All proposals below EUR50,000 were prioritized by the units to cut the expenditure by at least 25 percent, with a special emphasis on synergistic use of devices and equipment among the units.RESULTS:The expert groups suggested significant reductions to the proposals, including the withdrawal of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)-unit considered to be suboptimally located. Furthermore, the need for a new scanner was declined by promoting adherence to evidence-based diagnostic guidelines and more efficient utilization of existing scanners. Self-assessed MiniHTAs revealed proposals that were unnecessary or the specifications for devices needed re-adjustments. Prioritization revealed excess numbers of devices, for instance the number of cold storage appliances could be reduced. Altogether, the investment proposals were cut by over EUR3.8 million to reach the initial budgetary allocation.CONCLUSIONS:Innovative and flexible usage of hospital-based HTA methodology can be applied to budget planning and evaluation of investment proposals to support decision making. Based on encouraging results, hospital-based HTA was accepted to become a part of hospital strategy as a tool for the annual investment planning.


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