Health technology assessment

[1] Health technology is conceived as any intervention (test, device, medicine, vaccine, procedure, program) at any point in its lifecycle (pre-market, regulatory approval, post-market, disinvestment).

"[4] And "a multidisciplinary process that summarises information about the medical, social, economic and ethical issues related to the use of a health technology in a systematic, transparent, unbiased, robust manner.

It has also been advanced by the evolution of evaluative methods in the social and applied sciences, including clinical epidemiology and health economics.

[17] Also in the UK, the Multidisciplinary Assessment of Technology Centre for Healthcare carries out HTA in collaboration with the health service, the NHS and various industrial partners.

MATCH is organised into four themes addressing key HTA topics including Health Economics, Tools for Industry, User Needs and Procurement and Supply chain.

In another four regions (Calabria, Marche, Umbria, and Valle D'Aosta) and in the two autonomous provinces of Bolzano and Trento, HTA is performed at different levels, even if no legislation has yet been produced.

[19] A recent study[20] explored the implementation of HTA in three middle-income countries (MICs) and its influence on health system objectives.