BACKGROUND The literature recognizes a need for greater patient involvement in health technology assessment (HTA), but few studies have been reported, especially at the local level. Following the decentralisation of HTA in Quebec, Canada, the last few years have seen the creation of HTA units in many Quebec university hospital centres. These units represent a unique opportunity for increased pa...

OBJECTIVES The mainly tax-paid healthcare system in Denmark is decentralized with three defined policy and management levels. Health technology assessment (HTA) as a concept was introduced in the beginning of the 1980s. Significant implementation only happened when the first national strategy for HTA was developed by relevant stakeholders and issued as an official document in 1996. The introduc...

BACKGROUND Health technology assessment (HTA) is increasingly performed at the local or hospital level where the costs, impacts, and benefits of health technologies can be directly assessed. Although local/hospital-based HTA has been implemented for more than two decades in some jurisdictions, little is known about its effects and impact on hospital budget, clinical practices, and patient outco...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to develop and apply an instrument to map the level of health technology assessment (HTA) development at country level in selected countries. We examined middle-income countries (Argentina, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, and Russia) and countries well-known for their comprehensive HTA programs (Australia, Canada, and United Kingdom). METHODS A...

OBJECTIVE To assess the clinical relevance and newsworthiness of the UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme funded reports. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING The cohort included 311 NIHR HTA Programme funded reports publishing in HTA in the period 1 January 2007-31 December 2012. The McMaster Online Rating of Evidence (MO...

OBJECTIVES This study is to review health technology assessment (HTA) development in China during the past two decades, and to facilitate further development of HTA and its integration into policy making. METHODS The study depends very much on the extensive experiences of the authors in involvement of HTA in China. In addition, literature review and Web site searching have been used to trace ...

AIM To provide insights into the capacity to conduct health technology assessment (HTA) in Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe (CESEE), taking account of technical, financial, networking, and human resources. METHODS An e-mail survey of 257 CESEE key informants involved in HTA was undertaken between March and April 2014. Contact e-mail addresses were identified from the internet. The s...

BACKGROUND In conjunction with other important movements in contemporary medicine, including evidence-based medicine (EBM), health technology assessment (HTA) has promoted a culture of critical evaluation. Despite this impact, institutional and methodological challenges are associated with HTA. For example, only in recent years has HTA attempted an open dialogue with patients; however, this is ...

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 The way people use health technology assessment (HTA) terms varies considerably across Europe. Such variation can lead to misunderstandings when reading HTA reports from different contexts. This work is one of the outputs of the EUnetHTA Project and was undertaken between 2006 and 2008. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to develop a glossary of HTA adaptation terms to help reduc...