PLAIN ENGLISH SUMMARY A number of health technology assessment (HTA) organisations have developed processes to engage patients in the assessment of new health technologies such as pharmaceuticals, diagnostic tests, devices or medical procedures. Typically, this involves the HTA agency providing an opportunity for patient advocates and their patient organisations (support groups for patients wit...

BACKGROUND Decision-analytic modelling (DAM) has become a widespread method in health technology assessments (HTA), but the extent to which modelling is used differs among international HTA institutions. In Germany, the use of DAM is optional within HTAs of the German Institute of Medical Documentation and Information (DIMDI). Our study examines the use of DAM in DIMDI HTA reports and its effec...

The combination of rising health care costs, efforts to achieve universal or near-universal coverage globally, and growing drive for better outcomes brings an urgent demand to spend health care funds efficiently and in accordance with each country's priorities. A response to such demand requires, first, an understanding of what technologies and interventions (drugs, devices, procedures, diagnos...

This volume, Value in Health Regional Issues (ViHRI) Volume 12, is the first Asia issue since our journal was awarded with a higher international journal standard by being indexed in MEDLINE/ PubMed. The achievement may not have been possible without the great contributions made by the authors of all of the previously published articles. This particular issue covers studies from the Asia-Pacifi...

OBJECTIVES Health technology assessment (HTA) programs influence practice on a broad scale through reimbursement decisions or national guidelines. Hospital-based HTA programs inform clinical decisions at the local level. Typically, they do this by adapting general HTA to their local setting, or by creating new HTA. However, unlike payer-based HTA organizations, hospital-based HTA organizations ...

OBJECTIVES Since 1997, members of the International Network of Agencies for Health Technology Assessment (INAHTA) have collaborated on a Joint Project to track the diffusion, evaluation, and clinical policy of positron emission tomography (PET). Part 2 of this updated Joint Project report summarizes HTA-based strategies for directing the clinical use of PET and a discussion on the value of HTA ...

The Health Technology Assessment (HTA), was created to provide an operational response the gap between limited resources of NHS, increasingly differentiated demand for health and rapid technological innovation. According AGENAS it is "a multidisciplinary approach analysis medical-clinical, social, organizational, economic, ethical legal implications a technology". objective HTA assess effects t...

The opportunity cost of inappropriate health policy decisions is greater in Central and Eastern European (CEE) compared with Western European (WE) countries because of poorer population health and more limited healthcare resources. Application of health technology assessment (HTA) prior to healthcare financing decisions can improve the allocative efficiency of scarce resources. However, few CEE...

Health technology assessment (HTA) is a dynamic, rapidly evolving process, embracing different types of assessments that inform real-world decisions about the value (i.e., benefits, risks, and costs) of new and existing technologies. Historically, most HTA agencies have focused on producing high quality assessment reports that can be used by a range of decision makers. However, increasingly org...