Abrishami, Oortwijn, and Hofman (AOH) attribute to me a position I do not hold and an argument I did not make. The purpose of this note is make clear what my position actually is and to clarify the main differences between health technology assessment (HTA) and cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA).

OBJECTIVES Adapting health technology assessment (HTA) reports for different contexts could reduce the need for multiple reports on the same health technology with resultant saving of time and resources. This article describes an instrument, the adaptation toolkit, which has been developed to aid in the process of adaptation of HTA reports. METHODS The toolkit was developed by a partnership o...

1 Osteba, Basque Office for Health Technology Assessment (HTA), Ministry for Health, Basque Government, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, 2 Societá Italiana di Farmacia Clinica e Terapia (SIFaCT) – Italian Society of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics, Milan, Italy, 3 German Agency for Health Technology Assessment (DAHTA), Deutsches Institut für Medizinische Dokumentation und Information (DIMDI), Cologne...

The first steps towards Health Technology Assessment (HTA) were taken in Romania between 1992-2002 when some form of mentorship was performed in this area with Canadian support [1]; later on, from 2002 to 2011 HTA remained a subject only for the academic and research purposes. Only the pressure brought by the Memorandum of Understanding between Romanian Government with International Monetary Fu...

Health technology assessment (HTA) has a long history in the United Kingdom. The first study undertaken to inform a central policy decision was the economic evaluation of screening for tuberculosis using mass miniature radiography [1]. Another well-known study was the evaluation of the heart transplant program, commissioned by the Department (i.e., Ministry) of Health (DH) to decide whether to ...

BACKGROUND The Health Technology Assessment (HTA) approach, which provides scientific support for the decisions taken within the health field, is of increasing importance worldwide. In a context of limited resources, HTA has the potential of being an efficient tool for addressing the sustainability problems and the allocation choices arising from the constant increase in demand. AIM This stud...

OBJECTIVES To develop a health technology assessment (HTA) adaptation toolkit and glossary of adaptation terms for use by HTA agencies within EU member states to support them in adapting HTA reports written for other contexts. METHODS The toolkit and glossary were developed by a partnership of 28 HTA agencies and networks across Europe (EUnetHTA work package 5), led by the UK National Coordin...

Conventional models of 'evidence' for clinical practice focus on the role of randomised controlled clinical trials and systematic reviews as technologies that promote a specific model of rigour and analytic accountability. The assumption that runs through the disciplinary field of health technology assessment (HTA), for example, is that the quantification of evidence about cost and clinical eff...