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. 2025 Mar 18;41(1):e19.
doi: 10.1017/S0266462325000108.

The potential of the hospital-based Health Technology Assessment: Results of a world-wide survey

Rossella Di Bidino  1   2   3 , Iga Lipska  3   4 , Monika Kukla  3   4 , Marina von Pinoci  3   5 , Sara Consilia Papavero  1   3 , Marco Marchetti  3   6 , Laura Sampietro-Colom  3   7 , Americo Cicchetti  3   8
Affiliations

The potential of the hospital-based Health Technology Assessment: Results of a world-wide survey

Rossella Di Bidino et al. Int J Technol Assess Health Care. .

Abstract

Objectives: Hospital-Based Health Technology Assessment (HB-HTA) is a heterogeneous phenomenon constantly evolving to respond to the needs of decision-makers at the hospital level. In 2023, The HB-HTA Interest Group of Health Technology Assessment International (HTAi) surveyed HB-HTA activities with the aim to provide an updated description of the actual scenario.

Methods: An online survey was conducted to gather data on the main characteristics of hospitals, HB-HTA activities, outputs, role in the decision-making processes, dissemination and training activities, and their interaction and collaboration with other stakeholders and HTA-related regulations. Finally, the survey collected feedback on the perception of and current barriers to HB-HTA. Three categories of responders were identified: Both hospitals performing and not performing HTA and policymakers.

Results: Eighty-seven responses were collected from twenty-eight countries. Nearly half of the responders (n = 41) conducted HB-HTA, whereas eighteen consisted of hospitals not performing HTA, and twenty-eight were policy makers. HB-HTA was performed mainly in hospitals with >500 beds. HB-HTA units were organized in 40 percent of cases as an "independent group." The survey showed that HTA units could contribute to all the steps of the decision-making processes, whereas the impact of the assessments on the decisions was mainly perceived as a medium. Furthermore, HB-HTA was not seen as a duplication of effort, even without specific regulations.

Conclusions: The survey highlighted the role of HB-HTA in hospital decision-making supporting the vision of HB-HTA as one of the actors in the HTA ecosystem, the success of which depends on collaboration with other stakeholders.

Keywords: HB-HTA; Health Technology Assessment; decision-making; hospital; survey.

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Conflict of interest statement

Authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
(A) Geographical distribution of survey responders; (B) hospital HB-HTA doers; (C) hospital HB-HTA not doers figure.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
(A) Year of introduction HB-HTA; (B) mission of HB-HTA; (C) dedicated annual budget for HB-HTA activities; (D) HB-HTA mandatory for the hospital; technology assessed.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
(A) HB-HTA steps decision making process; (B) the impact of HB-HTA on final decision; (C) HTA domain covered by HB assessment.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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