Perspectives on health technology assessment in Latin America. The case of perinatal care in the literature.

The possibility of referring to the medical literature to support technology assessments in perinatal care was studied by examining more than 40,000 references contained in the Index Medicus of Latin America for the period 1984-88. A total of 1,074 references addressed perinatal technologies, but with irregular distribution. Information on effectiveness, safety, costs, and social impact of perinatal technologies was extremely limited. These results led to the conclusion that immediate action needs to be taken to create the necessary conditions for health technology assessment in Latin America.