Guidance for the development of a National HTA-strategy

Defining capacity building in the context of HTA: a proposal by the HTAi Scientific Development and Capacity Building Committee

“…It is important that the concept of HTA capacity building reflects good HTA practices, which covers governance and organizational aspects, framing and scoping, assessment and contextualization, implementation and monitoring (13). The definition needs to be applicable to the decision-making context (14;15) in which the HTA is conducted or used, including whether the HTA activity in question is highly specific to a health problem and/or component of the HTA process through to the broadest applications of HTA. As such, we believe that a general definition should be complemented by an operationalization “menu” from which components can be drawn, relevant to the specific application.…”

“…the media and the broader public who react to HTA outcomes) to understand and support HTA outcomes is a determining factor in how and when HTA will be used. Key components pertinent to possible capacity building within the environmental context can be summarized as follows: Political support for HTA (5;14–16;19): without political support and the associated funding and establishment within a health system, the use of HTA will be inherently limited. This includes the political support required to encourage the integration of HTA across the health system; particularly so where HTA provides information to decision makers in different organizations. Demand for HTA by HTA users (15;20): this applies to a broad range of potential users from policy/decision makers to providers (such as clinicians).…”

“…Political support for HTA (5;14–16;19): without political support and the associated funding and establishment within a health system, the use of HTA will be inherently limited. This includes the political support required to encourage the integration of HTA across the health system; particularly so where HTA provides information to decision makers in different organizations.…”

“…Key components pertinent to possible capacity building within the organizational context can be summarized as follows: Linkage of HTA with health system decision makers/policy makers (5;14–16;19;20): where HTA is not linked with decision and policy making, its use is more likely to be academic in nature rather than useful for health policy or decision making. Strengthening this link is important to increase the impact of HTA outputs.…”

Who’s afraid of institutionalizing health technology assessment (HTA)?: Interests and policy positions on HTA in the Czech Republic

“…Finally, institutional arrangements of HTA matter. While warning against a simplistic emulation of the English NICE (Oortwijn et al ., 2010) is certainly reasonable advice, the opposing temptation is to avoid recommending any institutional setup altogether (VASPVT and LBI, 2015; Wild et al ., 2015). HTA as a method of analysis becomes decoupled from its institutionalization, suggesting it is unimportant whether evidence is evaluated by an independent agency, a unit at the ministry of health, or an academic institute – as long as it respects general international HTA standards.…”