Application studies and surveillance systems in the EU

Research areas: High tech medicine, European collaboration

Project lead: Rosemarie Felder-Puig
Duration: 2006 - 2008

Objective: Since the actual effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of many of the health technologies that are introduced in health care systems cannot be evaluated before broader application under real conditions, many countries either release technologies that are not fully assessed or require post-marketing follow-up studies. An alternative is the requirement to monitor the use and the outcome of a technology. For this reason, some countries have started to set up “registries” or “application protocols” in order to keep some health technologies (often surgical or costly interventions) under surveillance before broader diffusion takes place and until decisive evidence is available. The objective of Strand A of Work Package 7 of EUnetHTA is to provide tools that enable countries to monitor the development of emerging, new or established health technologies and to share data and results of this monitoring.

Method and content: Overview of existing monitoring tools (application studies, registries, etc.) and of technologies that are currently being monitored with these tools; development of commonly shared monitoring tools that are relevant to the different technologies considered and adapted to the resources available in institutions in charge of technology assessment; piloting of one monitoring tool and testing the feasibility of pooling data from different countries using a common monitoring tool

Contact: Rosemarie-Felder Puig

WP 7 Publication: