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...

BACKGROUND It has been suggested that differences in health technology assessment (HTA) processes among countries, particularly within Europe, have led to inequity in patient access to new medicines. OBJECTIVES To provide an up-to-date snapshot analysis of the present status of HTA and reimbursement systems in select European countries, and to investigate the implications of these processes, ...

Hyalinizing trabecular adenoma (HTA) of the thyroid, characterized by the presence of a trabecular-alveolar growth pattern and marked intratrabecular hyalinization, was initially described 100 years ago. In 1987, Carney et al. introduced the term HTA to describe this rare tumor of the thyroid composed of polygonal, oval, and spindle cells arranged in a trabecular pattern and separated by a hyal...

The use of health technology assessment (HTA) to inform policy-making is established in most developed countries. Compared to licensing agencies, HTA agencies have different interests and, therefore, different evidence requirements. Criteria for coverage or reimbursement decisions on pharmaceutical compounds vary; however, it is common to include, as part of the HTA, a comparative effectiveness...

Daniels, Porteny and Urrutia et al make a good case for the idea that that public decisions ought to be made not only “in the light of” evidence but also “on the basis of” budget impact, financial protection and equity. Health technology assessment (HTA) should, they say, be accordingly expanded to consider matters additional to safety and cost-effectiveness. They also complain that most HTA re...

All societies face the need to make judgments about what interventions (both public health and personal medical) to provide to their populations under reasonable resource constraints. Their decisions should be informed by good evidence and arguments from health technology assessment (HTA). But if HTA restricts itself to evaluations of safety, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness, it risks being vie...

Introduction: Assessment of ethics issues is an important part of health technology assessments (HTA). However, in terms of existence of quality assessment tools, ethics for HTA is methodologically underdeveloped in comparison to other areas of HTA, such as clinical or cost effectiveness. Objective: To methodologically advance ethics for HTA by: (1) proposing and elaborating Q-SEA, the first in...

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to support health technology assessment (HTA) capacity building in Member States of the European Union with limited experience or without institutionalized HTA. The main output is a Handbook on HTA Capacity Building. METHODS The methods used were worldwide surveys of (i) HTA organizations, (ii) information management units, and (iii) HTA educational progra...

Background Evidence-informed deliberative processes (EDPs) were recently introduced to guide health technology assessment (HTA) agencies to improve their processes towards more legitimate decision-making. The EDP framework provides guidance that covers the HTA process, ie, contextual factors, installation of an appraisal committee, selecting health technologies and criteria, assessment, a...

background: dealing with ethical considerations is a major component of health technology assessment (hta) definitions. objectives: present study aimed to explore and describe the manner of ethical analyses in hta reports and the effects it had on hta-related decision making around the world.   methods: by considering the contextual milieu of reports and searching for ethical themes and subject...