Report IDs areas lacking good practice in health tech assessment

(HealthDay)—In a report published in the January issue of Value in Health, an ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research working group indicates the lack of good practices in three areas of health technology assessment (HTA).

In a summary of the ISPOR HTA Council Working Group Report on Good Practices in HTA, Finn Børlum Kristensen, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, and colleagues comprehensively synthesized good practices or emerging good practices to support population decision making in HTA. They note that 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 within health systems.

The researchers state that many good practices have been developed in areas of assessment and other key aspects of defining HTA processes, but many areas are lacking good practices. These areas include defining the organizational aspects, use of deliberative processes, and assessing the impact of HTA.

"We identified three areas where few good practices in HTA have been developed or where there is no clear consensus," a coauthor said in a statement. "In my opinion, the area of integrating social values is the most important and underdeveloped aspect of HTA. HTA bodies have increasingly been exploring how to best integrate social values, particularly patient values, but many fall short of standards for deliberative processes that are fair and transparent."

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