IFEDH
Health Technology Assessment (HTA) provides information for decision-makers in the health care system. The consortium IFEDH (Innovative Framework for Evidence-based Decision Support in Healthcare) was formed in order to design a new strategy for the integration of modelling and simulation into the HTA process within limited resources whilst staying open to emerging new technologies. This aim resulted in a framework that consists of a standardized workflow, tasks, methods and good practices. Beginning with formalization of the underlying problem and identification of research questions, the process is followed by data acquisition and modelling and finally ends by generating results for decision support. Visualization and documentation are crucial tasks that support the whole process. Additionally, standards for modelling were defined and new general modelling concepts were developed. All these developments serve as a basis for fast, credible, evidence-based decision support for comparing various technologies in the health system.