3.6 - Current Situation And Future Directions For Health Technology Assessment In Europe

Abstract

The first bodies performing Health Technology Assessment (HTA) were set up in the 1980s-1990s in Western Europe. Since then, HTA has been expanding all over Europe and has taken a growing importance. Decision makers for the organization of health care systems face increasingly difficult issues and need to be adequately informed by a sound, solid, well-accepted assessment and appraisal of health technologies. To achieve this, HTA has evolved over time with regard to its scope, organization, objectives, processes, and procedures. HTA is organized at the national (and/or regional) level, and criteria and processes vary from one country to another. Despite these differences, HTA systems have a lot in common, notably a shared priority on the assessment of relative effectiveness, i.e., the benefit over existing therapies. Whether cost-effectiveness is applied or not, and for what purpose, is, in contrast, more country-specific. Since the early 2000s, cooperation between HTA bodies in Europe has been developing, with the support of EU-funded projects. The European Network for HTA (EUnetHTA) is currently starting a new Joint Action that will last 4 years. This operational and scientific level of cooperation has been, since 2013, reinforced by the set-up of a governance body, the HTA Network, as a consequence of the entry in force of the European Directive on cross-border health care. Objectives are to reduce duplication of work, increase quality and consistency of European assessments, and interact with industry to improve the quality of data produced during technology development. At a time when all health care systems are challenged by the arrival of personalized medicine, e-health applications, and advanced therapies, this cooperation is particularly needed to ensure that HTA will be able to deliver adapted and useful assessments of health technologies.