Introduction For over 40 years, Canada has had a publicly funded, national health-care system designed to ensure residents receive “reasonable access” to “medically necessary” health-care services, regardless of their ability to pay [1]. However, unlike many of its European counterparts, Canada’s system is a decentralized one, comprised of 13 separate provincial and territorial health insurance plans. Guided by common values (e.g., equity […]

The economic evaluation of new health technologies to assess whether the value of the expected health benefits warrants the proposed additional costs has become an essential step in making novel interventions available to patients. This assessment of value is problematic because there exists no natural means to measure it. One approach is to assume that society […]

Over the last two decades, economic evaluation of health technologies has developed enormously, affirming its importance within the pursuit of efficiency in the management of health care systems. One concern that has been raised with health technology assessment (HTA) has been its operationalization within the realm of decision making. Here, we suggest a mechanism by which […]

The systematic use of evidence to inform healthcare decisions, particularly health technology assessment (HTA), has gained increased recognition. HTA has become a standard policy tool for informing decision makers who must manage the entry and use of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and other technologies (including complex interventions) within health systems, for example, through reimbursement and pricing. Despite increasing attention to HTA activities, there has […]

Abstract Background Escalating medicine prices have catalysed the generation of numerous ‘value frameworks’ with the aim of informing payers, clinicians and patients on the assessment and appraisal process of new medicines for the purpose of coverage and treatment selection decisions. Furthermore, medicine evaluation has to deal with more uncertainty, which highlights a need to determine the […]

The European Network for Health Technology Assessment (EUnetHTA) was founded to support efficient production and use of health technology assessments (HTAs) across Europe by reducing redundancies through collaboration. To facilitate collaboration, a range of practical tools, methods and process definitions were developed. The article describes when and how these tools and methods are used along the HTA […]

Summary Resources for health care are inevitably limited; thus, it is neces-sary to make decisions on a regular basis, what health care will be reimbursed from the public health insurance, and what care will be behind the limits of possibilities of the particular society. Since 1980s, methods of health technology assessment (HTA) have been developed, and […]

The aim of this article is to review the role of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) organisations in appraising and recommending innovative cardiovascular technologies. We consider how bias impairs the quality of evidence from clinical trials involving cardiovascular healthcare technologies. Finally, we provide recommendations to HTA organisations to take account of bias when making guideline recommendations. Clinical research studies of medical devices, diagnostics and interventions in […]

 Abstract A trend or a useful tool? HTA (Health Technology Assessment) was born in the 70s as a tool to support decision makers in the health sector and has been quickly developing since, also with the creation of specialized international agencies (e.g. Health Technology Assessment International – HTAi; International Network of Assessment Agencies of health technologies […]