OP141 Health Technology Assessment In India: Current Scenario And Way Forward

Author(s):  
Komal Shah ◽  
Somen Saha ◽  
Priya Kotwani ◽  
Malkeet Singh ◽  
Kirti Tyagi

IntroductionIndia has introduced health technology assessment (HTA) as a tool for improving the allocation of health resources. The core mandate of HTA in India (HTAIn) is to undertake critical appraisal of available technologies, identify cost-effective interventions, and help the government pursue evidence-informed decisions regarding public health expenditures. We conducted a systematic review to assess economic evaluation studies published in the last four years from India.MethodsEconomic evaluations published from September 2015 to September 2019 were identified by searching various databases, including PubMed, Scopus, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and CINAHL according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guideline. Cost-effectiveness studies and HTAs reported or conducted in India were included. Two independent reviewers performed the final selection of studies by assessing the full-text articles and conducted the data extraction. Differences of opinions were resolved through discussion and mutual consensus.ResultsAfter screening 2,837 articles, seventy met the inclusion criteria and were selected. The articles predominantly used secondary data (70%) to evaluate the cost effectiveness of an innovation. Among the technologies assessed, fifty-seven percent were curative in nature and most commonly addressed infectious diseases (27%), closely followed by non-communicable diseases, and maternal and child health. Principally, the cost effectiveness of a technology was expressed in terms of disability-adjusted or quality-adjusted life-years. Only two studies reported negative findings.ConclusionsHTA can play a pivotal role in equipping policy makers and public health payers to make appropriate decisions for healthcare budget allocations when mapped with the true disease burden of the population. It is important to highlight negative results and to create a national repository of HTA studies to facilitate faster adoption of best practices in India.

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. e044712
Author(s):  
Somen Saha ◽  
Bharat Desai ◽  
Manish Fancy ◽  
Tapasvi Puwar ◽  
Deepak Saxena ◽  
...  

IntroductionMaternal anaemia is a major public health issue in India. The government of India recommends parenteral iron to manage moderate and severe grades of anaemia. In contrast to its clinical efficacy, the cost-effectiveness of intravenous iron sucrose and ferric carboxymaltose is not yet established in Indian context. This article illustrates the protocol of health technology assessment to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of intravenous therapy on the improvement of haemoglobin concentration over oral therapy.Methods and analysisThe study will be carried out in two districts of Gujarat state. The study participants will be selected by a proportionate sampling method from the rural, tribal, desert and coastal region of the districts. Data will be collected over 1 year on key outcome indicators using a mixed-method approach. Key informant interviews will be conducted, and cost data will be gathered to perform cost-effectiveness analysis.Ethics and disseminationThis study is approved by the Technical Appraisal Committee of Health Technology Assessment India, Department of Health Research and Institutional Ethics Committee of the Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alina Weise ◽  
Roland Brian Büchter ◽  
Dawid Pieper ◽  
Tim Mathes

Abstract Objective: For assessing cost-effectiveness, Health Technology Assessment (HTA) organisations may use primary economic evaluations (P-HEs) or Systematic Reviews of Health Economic evaluations (SR-HEs). The latter pose the question whether the results from existing P-HEs are transferable across decision contexts (e.g. jurisdictions). A particularly pertinent issue is the high variability of costs and resource needs across jurisdictions. Our objective was to review the methods documents of HTA organisations and compare their recommendations on considering transferability in SR-HE. Methods: We systematically hand searched the webpages of 158 HTA organisations for relevant methods documents from January to March 2019. Two independent reviewers performed searches and selected documents according to pre-defined criteria. One reviewer extracted data in standardised and piloted tables and a second reviewer checked them for accuracy. We synthesized data using tabulations and in a narrative way. Results: We identified 155 potentially relevant documents from 63 HTA organisations. Of these, 7 were included in the synthesis. The included organisations have different aims when preparing a SR-HE (e.g. to determine the need for conducting their own P-HE). The recommendations vary regarding the underlying terminology (e.g. transferability/generalisability), the assessment approaches (e.g. structure), the assessment criteria and the integration in the review process.Conclusion: Only few HTA organisations address the assessment of transferability in their methodological recommendations for SR-HEs. Transferability considerations are related to different purposes. The assessment concepts and criteria are heterogeneous. Developing standards to consider transferability in SR-HEs is desirable.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kicky G. van Leeuwen ◽  
Frederick J. A. Meijer ◽  
Steven Schalekamp ◽  
Matthieu J. C. M. Rutten ◽  
Ewoud J. van Dijk ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Limited evidence is available on the clinical impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in radiology. Early health technology assessment (HTA) is a methodology to assess the potential value of an innovation at an early stage. We use early HTA to evaluate the potential value of AI software in radiology. As a use-case, we evaluate the cost-effectiveness of AI software aiding the detection of intracranial large vessel occlusions (LVO) in stroke in comparison to standard care. We used a Markov based model from a societal perspective of the United Kingdom predominantly using stroke registry data complemented with pooled outcome data from large, randomized trials. Different scenarios were explored by varying missed diagnoses of LVOs, AI costs and AI performance. Other input parameters were varied to demonstrate model robustness. Results were reported in expected incremental costs (IC) and effects (IE) expressed in quality adjusted life years (QALYs). Results Applying the base case assumptions (6% missed diagnoses of LVOs by clinicians, $40 per AI analysis, 50% reduction of missed LVOs by AI), resulted in cost-savings and incremental QALYs over the projected lifetime (IC: − $156, − 0.23%; IE: + 0.01 QALYs, + 0.07%) per suspected ischemic stroke patient. For each yearly cohort of patients in the UK this translates to a total cost saving of $11 million. Conclusions AI tools for LVO detection in emergency care have the potential to improve healthcare outcomes and save costs. We demonstrate how early HTA may be applied for the evaluation of clinically applied AI software for radiology.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul C Langley

The contribution of cost-effectiveness analysis to the pricing of pharmaceuticals in Germany is at best marginal and in many, if not most cases, absent. While this may reflect a reasonable belief that cost-effectiveness analysis adds little if anything to pricing and formulary placement decisions, its marginalization reflects considerable dissatisfaction, if not frustration, with modeling efforts by the Institut für Qualität und Wirtschaftlichkeit im Gesundheitseesen (IQWiG). In part, this reflects the rejection of quality adjusted life years (QALYs) as the common outcome standard, together with the adoption of the efficiency frontier as the default framework for modeled claims. The purpose of this commentary is to consider the merits, in the German context, of an efficiency frontier framework for cost-effectiveness and pricing decisions. The commentary concludes that the efficiency frontier framework for health technology assessment, in supporting the creation of non-evaluable claims from models or simulations, fails of to meet the standards of normal science: it fails to support claims that are credible, evaluable and replicable. It should be abandoned. If cost-effectiveness modeling is to play a constructive role in pricing negotiations in Germany then manufacturers should be required to submit evaluable claims. The most effective way of ensuring this is to require manufacturers to accompany any submission for a new product with a protocol detailing how their claims, to include those for clinical outcomes, cost-effectiveness and budget impact, are to be evaluated and reported to decision makers in a meaningful time frame.   Type: Commentary


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul C Langley

The European Network for Health Technology Assessment (EUnetHTA) guidelines for health economic evaluations represent a consolidated view of non-binding recommendations for assessments of the relative effectiveness of pharmaceuticals or other health technologies. EUnetHTA views itself as the scientific and technological backbone of the development of health technology assessment in the European Union and among its member states and other partners. Unfortunately, the standards for health technology assessment proposed by EUnetHTA do not meet the standards of normal science. They do not support credible claims for the clinical and comparative cost-effectiveness of pharmaceuticals. In rejecting the standards of normal science the guidelines put to one side the opportunity not only to re-assess and replicate clinical and cost-effectiveness claims but to provide meaningful feedback on claims assessment to health care decision makers. The purpose of this review is to make the case that, in failing to support standards for experimentation, EUnetHTA is advocating its partners support the creation of modeled or simulated imaginary or false worlds. While EUnetHTA is not alone in recommending the construction of imaginary worlds to support formulary decisions, there is still the opportunity to revisit these recommendations and decide whether or not to encourage a scientifically rigorous approach to health technology assessments - to abandon a commitment to intelligent design in favor of natural selection.  Conflict of Interest None   Type: Commentary  


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.


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