Health technology assessment (HTA): a brief introduction of history and the current status in the field of cardiology under the economic crisis

INTRODUCTION:Over the past decades, early awareness and alert (EAA) activities and systems have gained importance and become a key early Health Technology Assessment (HTA) tool. While a pioneer in HTA, Sweden had no national level EAA activities until recently. We describe the evolution and current status of the Swedish EAA System.METHODS:This was a historical analysis based on the knowledge and experience of the authors supplemented by a targeted review of published and grey literature, as well as documents produced by or relating to the Swedish EAA System. Key milestones and a description of the current state of the Swedish EAA System are presented.RESULTS:Initiatives to establish a system for the identification and assessment of emerging health technologies in Sweden date back to the 1980s. Since the 1990s, the Swedish Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Assessment of Social Services (SBU) supported the development of EuroScan and was one of its founding members. In the mid-2000s, an independent regional initiative, driven by the Stockholm Drug and Therapeutics Committee, resulted in the establishment of a regional horizon scanning unit. By 2009, this work had expanded to a collaboration between the four biggest regions in Sweden. The following year it was further expanded to the national level. Today, the Swedish EAA System carries out identification, filtration and prioritization of new drugs, early assessment of the prioritized drugs, and dissemination of the information. Its outputs are used to select new drugs for inclusion in the Swedish national process for managed introduction and follow-up.CONCLUSIONS:The Swedish EAA System started as a regional initiative and rapidly grew to become a national level activity. An important feature of the system today is its complete integration into the national process for managed introduction and follow-up of new drugs. The system will continue to evolve as a response both to the changing landscape of health innovations and to new policy initiatives at the regional, national and international levels.

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Health Technology Assessment Implementation in Ukraine: Current Status and Future Perspectives

International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care ◽

10.1017/s0266462319000679 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 35 (5) ◽

pp. 393-400 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Marcell Csanádi ◽

András Inotai ◽

Oleksandra Oleshchuk ◽

Oksana Lebega ◽

Brodovskaya Alexandra ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Technology Assessment ◽

Technology Assessment ◽

Implementation Process ◽

Great Majority ◽

Health Technology ◽

Current Status ◽

Local Data ◽

Patient Organizations ◽

The Future ◽

The Status

AbstractObjectivesThe need for improving healthcare decision making by implementing health technology assessment (HTA) has been a top priority in Ukraine since 2016. This study sought to provide a tailor-made HTA implementation roadmap, drawing on insights from national stakeholders.MethodsWe conducted a survey using a questionnaire already applied in previous HTA research. We assessed the status of HTA when reforms were initiated in 2016 and examined perspectives on possible future developments among policy makers and representatives of pharmaceutical companies and patient organizations.ResultsThirty-two respondents answered the survey. Forty-eight percent of respondents were not aware of HTA training in Ukraine, but 91 percent preferred having either a graduate or postgraduate training. Experts stated that funding for HTA research and for critical appraisal of HTA submissions was limited, but in the future, they would increase funding mainly from public sources. A public HTA agency with academic support was the most preferred organizational structure. Eighty-eight percent of respondents opted for full transparency, making the HTA agency's recommendations and the related appraisal reports publicly available. A great majority of participants preferred mandating the use of local data in certain categories and indicated the importance of evaluating the transferability of international evidence. Healthcare priority and cost-effectiveness were the most important criteria for decisions, applied with a soft explicit threshold.ConclusionsUkraine is in the early phase of implementing HTA and our study provides a clear vision of national stakeholders about the future directions. In addition, learning from the experiences of other countries may help the implementation process.

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PP138 Current Status Of Healthcare Decision Making And Future Perspective Of The Health Technology Assessment Implementation Roadmap In Turkey

International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care ◽

10.1017/s0266462320001282 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 36 (S1) ◽

pp. 16-17

Author(s):

Enver Kagan Atikeler ◽

Ahmad Nader Fasseeh ◽

Bert Leufkens ◽

Wim Goettsch

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Health Technology Assessment ◽

Technology Assessment ◽

Health Technology ◽

Current Status ◽

Healthcare Decision ◽

Health Technologies ◽

Economic Decision Making ◽

Healthcare Decision Making ◽

Decision Making Processes

IntroductionTurkey's health reforms, which started in 2003, have led to increased access to health care and pharmaceuticals as well as rising public pharmaceutical expenditures. The need to improve healthcare decision making by implementing health technology assessment (HTA) has become an important priority for Turkey. This study sought to provide a tailor-made HTA implementation roadmap, drawing on insights from national stakeholders.Our study aimed to describe the current HTA environment in Turkey and to explore long-term perspectives and suggestions from a wide spectrum of Turkish stakeholders regarding the preferred status of HTA in ten years (by 2029).MethodsWe conducted an online survey using a questionnaire previously applied in other HTA research. We assessed the current evaluation of medical and economic decision-making processes and examined the need for HTA. We also ascertained stakeholder perspectives on potential developments that can be done together with policymakers, representatives of pharmaceutical companies, and patient organizations. We also included general information about the pharmaceutical market and decision making processes in Turkey.ResultsThe survey was sent to various stakeholders from different areas within the health system. Additional face-to-face interviews were conducted with a few respondents to clarify some of their answers. A total of twenty-seven Turkish stakeholders completed the survey. Of these, twenty-one (78%) participants were employed in the public sector and six (22%) were from the private sector. The majority of the participants would introduce HTA for all new health technologies being considered for public reimbursement and institute an additional review process for currently reimbursed technologies. Most of the respondents considered that only new technologies with significant budget impact should be evaluated in the next ten years.ConclusionsIt is clear that Turkey needs to implement an HTA process in the future. Our study shows stakeholder expectations, which will be helpful for creating an HTA implementation roadmap, and it is clear that different stakeholders have different views and expectations about HTA implementation in Turkey. The experiences of other countries will also be helpful during the implementation process.

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