Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: Reports for Health Technology Assessment (HTA) deal with efficacy, effectiveness and efficiency of technologies in health care. In case of efficacy the demands for and the process of getting evidence are similar to Cochrane Reviews. The handbook of the Cochrane Collaboration defines the preparation of systematic reviews, i.e. standardised structure, methodological procedures or software to use. For the collection of data, however, only recommendations exist. The implementation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), a well known method for quality assurance in industrial processes, could be one possibility to diminish literature bias.
Results: Following the advice and experiences given by the Cochrane handbook, we developed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the preparation of HTA reports in Germany. Special attention was paid on search strategies for literature, sources for data collection, review process and dissemination. The SOPs describe every step in the process, for example which databases are to be elected for literature research (standard: Amed, Biosis Previews, Catline, Cochrane Library, Embase, Healthstar, Int. Health Technology Assessment (IHTA), Medline, Scisearch, Somed; complementary databases according to topic), their handling and the procedure of extraction and condensation of data. In addition the procedure of continuous evaluation of actually used and new databases for integration in the search process has been defined. The SOPs have been validated using results of existing HTA-reports of acknowledged high quality for comparison and by evaluation with new HTA-reports. In addition parts of the SOPs are being tested with the drafting of a Cochrane Systematic Review. We will present the structure and contents of the SOPs as well as the associated costs and the results of the tests. The current versions of the SOPs can be found on our homepage: http://www.dimdi.de
Conclusions: The implementation of SOPs is a possible method for quality assurance in preparing HTA-Reports. SOPs need continuous evaluation and development. For this purpose a process of commentary and criticism will be initiated. Participation is welcome.
Results: Following the advice and experiences given by the Cochrane handbook, we developed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the preparation of HTA reports in Germany. Special attention was paid on search strategies for literature, sources for data collection, review process and dissemination. The SOPs describe every step in the process, for example which databases are to be elected for literature research (standard: Amed, Biosis Previews, Catline, Cochrane Library, Embase, Healthstar, Int. Health Technology Assessment (IHTA), Medline, Scisearch, Somed; complementary databases according to topic), their handling and the procedure of extraction and condensation of data. In addition the procedure of continuous evaluation of actually used and new databases for integration in the search process has been defined. The SOPs have been validated using results of existing HTA-reports of acknowledged high quality for comparison and by evaluation with new HTA-reports. In addition parts of the SOPs are being tested with the drafting of a Cochrane Systematic Review. We will present the structure and contents of the SOPs as well as the associated costs and the results of the tests. The current versions of the SOPs can be found on our homepage: http://www.dimdi.de
Conclusions: The implementation of SOPs is a possible method for quality assurance in preparing HTA-Reports. SOPs need continuous evaluation and development. For this purpose a process of commentary and criticism will be initiated. Participation is welcome.