How Electronic Clinical Data Can Improve Health Technology Assessment

Abstract

Health technology assessments represent comprehensive summaries of available evidence and information on a technology. They are used by medical decision makers in a variety of ways, including diagnostic testing, treatment selection, care management, patient perspectives, patient safety, insurance coverage, pharmaceutical innovation, equipment planning, device purchasing, and total cost-of-care. Electronic clinical data, which are captured routinely by clinicians and hospitals, are only rarely incorporated into formal health technology assessments. This disconnect reveals a key opportunity. In this paper, we discuss current uses of electronic clinical data, several benefits of including it in health technology assessments, potential pitfalls of that inclusion, and the implications for better medical decisions.

Possible Uses of Data from Hospital Discharge Reports

“…Health system research HDR data have been used in studies of national health care systems and in a study of health burden, the economic impact of diseases and the planning of future interventions (31). As a result, after a measles epidemic in Italy in 2002, the MMR vaccine was included in the obligatory vaccination schedule (32).…”

A SWOT analysis of the development of health technology assessment in Iran

“…Information infrastructure and data facilities should be created in every country and serious attention should be paid to their development. Studies have shown that the existence of appropriate information infrastructure can help managers and policy-makers make clear decisions in using HTA [ 59 ]. Also, policy-makers need short and practical reports on how to use HTA findings [ 60 ].…”