Theme issue on INTEGRATE-HTA published in the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care

On 20 December 2017, a theme issue on INTEGRATE-HTA was published in the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care. INTEGRATE-HTA was a EU funded FP7 project aimed to adapt and develop concepts and methods for Health Technology Assessment to enable an integrated assessment of issues of complex health technologies. The INTEGRATE-HTA consortium consists of 7 partners from 5 different countries: Universität Bremen (coordinator, Germany), Ecorys Nederland, Ludwig Maximilians Universität München (Germany), Radboud university medical centre (Netherlands), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Italy), University, and the University of Sheffield (UK).

Background

To address current health needs, increasingly complex health technologies are offered. This means that decision-makers need to be informed by health technology assessment (HTA) that provide an integrated perspective on effectiveness, economic, ethical, legal and socio-cultural aspects of complex technologies, taking into account the heterogeneity of patient characteristics, as well as context and implementation issues. Against this background, the INTEGRATE-HTA project was set-up.

Aim of the project

INTEGRATE-HTA, aimed to adapt and develop concepts and methods for HTA to enable an integrated assessment of issues of complex technologies as follows:

Assessment of effectiveness and economic, socio-cultural, ethical, and legal issues of complex technologies
Assessment of patient preferences and patient-specific moderators of treatment
Assessment of context, setting, and implementation
Integrating all issues in a comprehensive patient-centred assessment
Closing existing methodological gaps in the assessment of complex technologies

Palliative care was used as a case study to test the methodology developed within the framework of the INTEGRATE-HTA project. Insights from the case study were subsequently used to refine the developed methodology and enhance its applicability to other complex technologies. This resulted in six guidances, which are available on the project website. Parts of these guidances have recently been applied by the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH).

Theme issue in the in the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care

On 20 December 2017, a theme issue on INTEGRATE-HTA was published in the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care. This issue contains articles written by members of the project team regarding the results of the project, as well as several contributions from international HTA experts on the usefulness of INTEGRATE-HTA:

How to avoid giving the right answers to the wrong questions: the need for integrated assessment of complex health technologies.
An integrated perspective on the assessment of technologies: INTEGRATE-HTA.
Stakeholder involvement throughout health technology assessment: an example from palliative care.
Taking patient heterogeneity and preferences into account in health technology assessments.
Comprehensive assessment of complex technologies: integrating various aspects in health technology assessment.
A consultation guide for assessing the applicability of health technologies: a case study.
Toward Integration in the context of health technology assessment: the need for evaluative frameworks.
Using the INTEGRATE-HTA guidance: experience from CADTH.
The added value of INTEGRATE-HTA guidance in the work processes of health technology assessment agencies.
INTEGRATE-HTA: a low- and middle-income country perspective.
INTEGRATE-HTA: the perspective of EUnetHTA.