[The International Network of Agencies for Health Technology Assessment (INAHTA) or the need for collaboration in evaluating health technologies]

Abstract

Given the current situation of globalization, rapidity of changes and open market, the problems in the health care sector also go beyond the local boundary. Thus, it is frequent for different health systems to have similar evaluation needs. The assessment reports are among the main tools that assessment agencies use to communicate with the health care professionals and policy makers in any responsibility: politics, management, or clinical care. Occasionally different evaluation teams have to deal with similar topics. It is in this context, with the aim to avoid duplicity and to join efforts, that the idea of collaboration within assessment agencies started, with an obvious benefit to all of them. The International Network of Agencies for Health Technology Assessment (INAHTA) was created with the aim of serving as a forum to identify common interests of agencies for health technology assessment. In these five years, a lot of activities and important outcomes have been achieved. Among others, we can mention the implementation of data bases with all the information produced by the member agencies, the establishment of an Internet Web site, the periodical publication of the newsletter, the joint assessment projects and the collaboration with developing countries. New projects for the future are currently under discussion.