The Ethics of Technology Assessment in Health Care

Abstract

A health technology is any kind of intervention used in health care for the screening, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases. The definition encompasses a wide variety of interventions including drugs or ways to organize the provision of health care, such as major ambulatory surgery or a specific software for a better planning of health care delivery. The amount of innovations coming from research and development processes in health care and the need to guarantee a high quality and efficient health care have urged the development of Health Technology Assessment. Also, it has promoted the development of specific institutions designed for assessing health technologies under government funding. These institutions known in most of the countries as Health Technology Assessment agencies have developed a network known as the International Network of Agencies for Health Technology Assessment (http://www.inahta.org). Also there is an organization known as the International Society for Technology Assessment in Health Care (http://www.istahc.org) for those who are interested in the issue.