Transferability of health technology assessment reports in Latin America: an exploratory survey of researchers and decision makers

Abstract

Introduction: HTA agencies, especially in developing countries, are under resourced and unable to conduct the desired amount of assessments. Adapting HTA reports (HTAs) from other jurisdictions is an alternative for saving resources.

Objectives: To explore HTA transferability experiences in Latin-America and Caribbean (LAC): are decision makers (DMs) using HTAs from other jurisdictions? Are researchers adapting HTAs when developing local reports? How useful is the information found in HTAs from other jurisdictions?

Methods: Web-based survey sent to 13031 HTA researchers and DMs.

Results: We received 671 responses from 19 countries. DMs reported using HTAs from other jurisdictions to guide decisions in the majority of the situations: 52.6 percent HTAs from outside LAC (e.g., Europe), 23.1 percent from other LAC countries, and only 24.3 percent HTAs from their own countries. 63 percent of researchers reported using HTAs from other jurisdictions. Usefulness scored significantly higher for HTAs from other jurisdictions as compared to local HTAs (7.1 versus 6.0 in a 1-10 scale; p < .01). Both DMs and researchers considered the information regarding safety and effectiveness more applicable than the information on social aspects, or economic evaluation. Barriers that limit transferability had significantly different scores for HTAs from other LAC countries as compared to those from regions outside LAC (i.e., poor methodological quality 6.7 versus 5.3, different epidemiological context 6.0 versus 7.4; all p < .01).

Conclusions: HTAs from outside the region are commonly used. However, DMs and researchers agreed that HTAs from LAC had the greatest potential for transferability, provided that barriers such as poor methodological quality could be overcome.