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Abstract
Introduction: Health technologies (HT) have a natural life-cycle with five stages: research/development, experimental, innovative, general use, and obsolescence/replacement. Health Technology Assessment (HTA) can be useful in all these stages.
Two independent researchers evaluated the reports and classified the life-cycle stage of each HT. Discrepancies were solved by consensus.
We considered three categories of HT: experimental stage, non-experimental (innovative, general use stage, non-effective) and obsolescence/replacement (Table 1).
We found that 93/130 (72%) HTs were approved by at least one regulatory agency.
The quality of the evidence measured by GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations) was high in 34%, moderate in 30%, low in 30% and very low in 6%. Nine were HTAs for orphan diseases.
Considering all the HTAs, only 49/130 (38%) had a positive or positive with restrictions for coverage recommendations.
Objective:
To describe when in the life-cycle of a technology the HTA is requested, based on the experience from an independent Argentinian HTA agency, the Institute for Clinical Effectiveness and Health Policy (IECS), a member of INAHTA (The International Network of Agencies for Health Technology Assessment).Methods:
We analyzed all the reports performed by IECS for a consortium of public, social security and private health care institutions in Argentina and Uruguay during 2014 and 2015.Two independent researchers evaluated the reports and classified the life-cycle stage of each HT. Discrepancies were solved by consensus.
We considered three categories of HT: experimental stage, non-experimental (innovative, general use stage, non-effective) and obsolescence/replacement (Table 1).
Results:
We evaluated 130 HTA reports related to drugs (38%), medical procedures (31%) and diagnostic technology (31%) (Table 2). None were requested at the research/development or obsolescence/replacement stages, 44% concerned the experimental stage and 56% the non-experimental stage. HTAs for drugs and medical procedures were more frequently at the non-experimental stage, and 45/73 (45%) of non-experimental HTs were considered to be non-effective (Figure 1).We found that 93/130 (72%) HTs were approved by at least one regulatory agency.
The quality of the evidence measured by GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations) was high in 34%, moderate in 30%, low in 30% and very low in 6%. Nine were HTAs for orphan diseases.
Considering all the HTAs, only 49/130 (38%) had a positive or positive with restrictions for coverage recommendations.