Evaluating the quality of health technology assessment reports in a developing country.

Abstract

No single method of health technology assessment (HTA) can meet all the policy- and decision-making needs in a country. However, there should be minimum criteria for performing HTA worldwide, and many HTA agencies have reached a consensus on this. This study aimed to assess the quality of HTA reports in the Islamic Republic of Iran. We examined all the HTA research reports published by the Iranian HTA office up to 2020, using the International Network of Agencies for Health Technology Assessment checklist for quality assessment. A total of 97 reports were examined, of which only 10.0% provided complete and appropriate contact details for further information and 5.6% clearly stated a conflict of interest. In 87.78% of the reports, the scope of assessment was clearly determined. The quality of the reports was relatively appropriate as well as details of the sources of information and text search strategies. Some 7.8%, 74.4%, 11.1%, 8.9%, and 4.4%, respectively, of the reports considered legal aspects, economic analysis, ethical implications, social implications, and other stakeholder perspectives. We recommend that minimum standards be established for the HTA process so that healthcare policy- and decision-makers can make reliable decisions on the basis of the HTA reports.