OBJECTIVES To describe and explore the reasons for the current health technology assessment (HTA) landscape in the United States. METHODS Relying on multiple historical literature and other documents as well as drawing on personal experiences and observations, we describe, evaluate, and explain the evolving and dynamic HTA-related evidence landscape. RESULTS The present HTA-related landscap...

BACKGROUND The way in which a health technology is used in any particular health system depends on the decisions and actions of a variety of stakeholders, the local culture, and context. In 2009, the HTAi Policy Forum considered how health technology assessment (HTA) could be improved to optimize the use of technologies (in terms of uptake, change in use, or disinvestment) in such complex syste...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to facilitate effective internal and external communication of an international network and to explore how to support communication and work processes in health technology assessment (HTA). STRUCTURE AND METHODS: European network for Health Technology Assessment (EUnetHTA) connected sixty-four HTA Partner organizations from thirty-three countries. User needs...

In 1989, Poland started to slowly release itself not only from the burden of a half-century of communist indoctrination and soviet exploitation, but also from the consequences of the Semashko model of healthcare organization: low doctors' salaries, primary care based on multispecialty groups, overdeveloped hospital infrastructure, and limited access to sophisticated interventions overcome by pa...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this work was to provide a comprehensive overview of the evolution of the health technology assessment (HTA) concept in the scientific literature through a scientometric approach. METHODS A literature search was conducted, by selecting publications, as well as news from the media, containing "health technology assessment" in their title, abstracts, or keywords. We then u...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to describe the Norwegian contribution to the broad picture of our international health technology assessment (HTA) history. METHODS A general examination of some pre-HTA activities, as consensus conferences, closer reading of all background papers to the establishment of an HTA agency in Norway, the ongoing activities of this agency, its evaluation, and i...

BACKGROUND The preparation of HTA reports requires a great deal of time, effort and resource, and there is a desire to improve efficiency, avoid duplication of effort and facilitate the transfer of knowledge between countries. This is of particular importance for countries with more limited resources which have less capacity to produce their own reports. The aim of this study was to investigate...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this project was to evaluate local decision support tools used in the Danish hospital sector from a theoretical and an empirical point of view. METHODS The use of local decision support was evaluated through questionnaires sent to all county health directors, all hospital managers, and all heads of clinical departments in cardiology, orthopedic surgery, and intensive...