How can the impact of health technology assessments be enhanced?

ABSTRACT

Growth in the diffusion of new health technologies has led to remarkable improvements in health and quality of life. These benefits, however, also bring challenges in ensuring value for money and concerns over the willingness of third party payers and patients to pay for expensive treatments, devices and drugs. As policy-makers seek to obtain maximum benefit from limited resources, and do so in legitimate and transparent ways that reflect the values underpinning health systems, health technology assessment (HTA) is a tool increasingly used to support this aim and encourage the efficient use of health technologies. This brief examines selected issues in the application and uptake of HTA in Europe.