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HTA Taskforce

Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is rapidly becoming one of the most important and contentious subjects in the current discussion on global 21st century health care policies. Indeed its increasing cross-border application is having a profound effect on healthcare systems and wider societal and business environments in a growing number of countries.
 
Due to its enormous impact on the prioritisation and rationing of medicines, HTA is likely to remain one of the most important subjects to be discussed and dealt with at all levels of the public-policy debate. As long as no broad-based and informed debate – beyond the issue of the cost of medicines - takes place, general misunderstanding and political abuse of HTA is likely to remain. Under these circumstances, HTA has the potential to do more harm than good.
 
To this end, five leading market oriented think tanks have come together to create an international taskforce on the economic and political implications of this complex and crucial topic.
 
The new taskforce will seek to focus on the policy-making aspects of HTA by doing the following:
 
  • Simplify and demystify - enable a broader and more accessible discussion about HTA and a critical appraisal of HTA-related policies.
  • Place the discourse on HTA within a broader political and economic context – such as the underlying structures of national HTA systems, their scope, their impact on overall healthcare policies, the extent to which HTA bodies are politically independent, the levels of transparency, the level of involvement of different stakeholders such as physicians and patients in the HTA process and much more. In this context, dedicated topical papers will be launched by the member think tanks, covering many of the different aspects of HTA.
  • Provide comparative data and analysis of different HTA systems at the national level - research papers in this area will place a particular focus on cross-country comparisons of HTA systems in Europe and beyond, including the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
  • Increase public awareness – by organising topical events, workshops and debates, involving the media, policy makers and the interested public.
 
The founding members of the HTA taskforce include the Stockholm Network (UK), the Centre for the New Europe (Belgium), the Istituto Bruno Leoni (Italy), the Institute for Free Enterprise (Germany) and the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest (US).
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