EUnetHTA - European network for Health Technology Assessment

Duration: 2006-2008; 2009; 2010-2012;2012-2015;2016-2020

Publications: Available at EUnetHTA website – http://www.eunethta.eu

Background:
In the Europe-wide assessment of pharmaceuticals and medical technologies, redundancies often occur due to simultaneous information needs from national decision makers. To facilitate a more efficient approach, a transnational harmonisation of methods and tools for assessment production (e.g., procedure manuals, standardised assessment templates) and the development of a shared infrastructure (e.g., a project database, communication tools) as well as shared quality standards are necessary. Since 2006, the EU project EUnetHTA aims at sustainably stimulating European collaboration and international information transfer in the field of HTA: in one EU project (EUnetHTA 2006-2008) and 2 Joint Actions (Joint Action 2010-2012 und Joint Action 2 2012-2015) involving around 70 HTA organisations from EU and EFTA countries, processes and tools to reduce redundancies in EU-wide HTA production were developed. In Joint Action 3 (June 2016 - June 2020) the LBI HTA will mainly promote and coordinate the joint assessment of health technologies other than pharmaceuticals.

Aims and Methods:
The aim of Joint Action 3 is to support voluntary cooperation at scientific and technical level between HTA bodies to validate the model for joint work to be continued after EU funding under the Health Programme ends. An overarching objective is to develop a general strategy for a sustainable European network of HTA organisations that provides objective, reliable, timely and comparable information to national decision makers. To reduce redundancies in assessment production, the use, quality and efficiency of joint HTA work at European level should be increased. The objective of Work Package 4 (co-led by LBI HTA) is to produce high quality, purposeful and timely joint health technology assessments that cover the whole range of health technologies. Production processes will be refined based on lessons learned and experiences gained in Joint Action 2. At the same time, new processes, e.g. for optimised topic selection and patient involvement, will be developed.

Results:
In Joint Action 3 a total of 80 joint assessments will be produced in European collaboration using consistent methods and templates; these assessments will be subsequently used for the production of national reports. The LBI HTA as an Activity Center coordinates the assessment of non-pharmaceutical technologies. By the use of sustainable processes for topic selection (selection and prioritization by a pool of HTA organisations or based on national work programs) the relevance of European assessments for national decision makers will be ensured.

The Planned and Ongoing Projects (POP) database, developed in 2011, is still being managed by LBI HTA and is available for EUnetHTA partners.

EUnetHTA website: http://www.eunethta.eu