Article type
Abstract
Background:
With a view to ensuring advice is useful and usable, the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) intends to include technology appraisal (TA) recommendations into guidelines. Bringing together all NICE’s guidance will provide a better experience for users and help increase the adoption of NICE guidance. This will lead to better outcomes for patients and better use of NHS resources. In the spirit of collaborative learning, NICE reached out to other health technology assessment (HTA) and guideline organizations to gather insights into the inclusion of HTA recommendations in guidelines, assessments for currency, and triggers for update.
Objectives:
To gather international intelligence on approaches to including TAs into guidelines, including consideration of the evolution of evidence and the lifecycle of guidance, to inform methods and process development within NICE.
Methods:
A targeted review was undertaken to understand global approaches, including:
- email correspondence and discussion with established contacts in international HTA organizations (focusing on OECD nations).
- surveying documents available on the websites for key international HTA/guideline organizations.
- reviewing select published papers.
Where available or requested, detail was extracted on:
- whether and how groups included HTA recommendations into guidelines.
- whether recommended health technologies are published as a list (or similar) or a pathway (ie, sequencing of HTA recommendations).
- what triggers an update of an HTA.
Results:
While limited by the targeted methods, this review of international approaches has revealed notable variation across HTA bodies in how HTA assessments are reviewed for currency and how updates are triggered (for example, at specific time points after publication or in response to pricing changes). The inclusion of HTAs into guidelines or a care pathway does not appear prevalent or routine; rather, HTA recommendations tend to be published as standalone assessments.
Conclusions:
The results of the targeted review show this is an evolving area and there is potential for future collaborative learning.
With a view to ensuring advice is useful and usable, the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) intends to include technology appraisal (TA) recommendations into guidelines. Bringing together all NICE’s guidance will provide a better experience for users and help increase the adoption of NICE guidance. This will lead to better outcomes for patients and better use of NHS resources. In the spirit of collaborative learning, NICE reached out to other health technology assessment (HTA) and guideline organizations to gather insights into the inclusion of HTA recommendations in guidelines, assessments for currency, and triggers for update.
Objectives:
To gather international intelligence on approaches to including TAs into guidelines, including consideration of the evolution of evidence and the lifecycle of guidance, to inform methods and process development within NICE.
Methods:
A targeted review was undertaken to understand global approaches, including:
- email correspondence and discussion with established contacts in international HTA organizations (focusing on OECD nations).
- surveying documents available on the websites for key international HTA/guideline organizations.
- reviewing select published papers.
Where available or requested, detail was extracted on:
- whether and how groups included HTA recommendations into guidelines.
- whether recommended health technologies are published as a list (or similar) or a pathway (ie, sequencing of HTA recommendations).
- what triggers an update of an HTA.
Results:
While limited by the targeted methods, this review of international approaches has revealed notable variation across HTA bodies in how HTA assessments are reviewed for currency and how updates are triggered (for example, at specific time points after publication or in response to pricing changes). The inclusion of HTAs into guidelines or a care pathway does not appear prevalent or routine; rather, HTA recommendations tend to be published as standalone assessments.
Conclusions:
The results of the targeted review show this is an evolving area and there is potential for future collaborative learning.