News

Welcome to the homepage of AIHTA!
AIHTA is an acadmic non-profit institute. At our website we wish to present our research and give support for health care decision-making. Here all of our reports are available for free. For further information please contact the AIHTA team.
In the News section you will find our most recent publications: newsletter, project-reports etc. Previous reports you might find via Research areas, Research projects and Repository.
Announcement
Proton and carbon ion therapy – an update on indications
Worldwide, 82 particle therapy facilities are currently in clinical operation; further 37 centers are under construction or in planning. This means that the number of centres worldwide has more than doubled since 2013. In Europe alone, 27 centres are currently operational (2013: 14). With such a large number of treatment centers, it should be assumed that the underlying clinical evidence on patient benefit is convincing. The update of the LBI-HTA report 2013 has the task to give an overview of secured indications as well as indications that are only recommended under clinical research. Only a hand search for HTA reviews and systematic reviews was conducted. The identified reviews articulate in unison that the available - mostly retrospective - studies are of low quality and insufficient to make conclusive statements on the added value of proton or carbon ion therapy. Only a few indications are recommended for proton or carbon ion therapy (chordomas and chondrosarcomas, uveamelanoma, pediatric tumors in the base of the skull, brain and head and neck tumors) to avoid secondary tumors. Further indications, with curative intention and non-metastatic, are only recommended under conditions of prospective clinical studies.
Publication: AIHTA Policy Brief No.: 004: http://eprints.aihta.at/1245/
Contact: Claudia Wild

Newsletter
Announcement
Horizon Scanning in Oncology - Fact Sheets
We are pleased to introduce our four new HSO Fact Sheets.
Fact Sheet No. 7 (April 2020)
Encorafenib (Braftovi®) in combination with cetuximab for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) with a BRAF V600E mutation
Fact Sheet No. 8 (April 2020)
Cabazitaxel Accord for the treatment of patients with metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) previously treated with a docetaxel containing regimen
Fact Sheet Nr. 9 (April 2020)
Daratumumab (Darzalex®) in a new pharmaceutical form associated with a new strength and a new route of administration for the treatment of multiple myeloma
Fact Sheet No. 10 (April 2020)
Glasdegib (Daurismo®) with low-dose cytarabine (LDAC) in patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukaemia (AML)
Project / HTA-methods & steering instruments
Framework for reimbursement decisions of digital health technologies (mHealth) and its (retrospective) application on selected examples
Project leaders: Claudia Wild
Project team: Reinhard Jeindl, Claudia Wild
Duration: May 2020 – November 2020
Language: German (with English summary)
Publication: HTA Project report No. 134: https://eprints.aihta.at/1279
Project / Health economics
ThemenCheck Medizin (IQWIG): Depression in children and adolescents - Does psychotherapy lead to better results compared to other therapies? (HT19-04) (Health Economics and Ethics)
Project leaders: Ingrid Zechmeister-Koss
Project team: Michal Stanak, Christoph Strohmaier
Duration: January 2020 – September 2020
Language: German
In co-operation with: Department for Evidence Based Medicine / DUK

Newsletter
Announcement
Covid-19: HSS/ Horizon Scanning Living Document (v02 May 2020)
The establishment of a HSS/ Horizon Scanning System for Covid19 interventions has the intentions of informing health policy makers at an early stage which interventions (vaccinations and drugs) are currently undergoing clinical trials and to monitor them over the next few months in order to support evidence-based purchasing if necessary. The products are monitored with regard to the status of the clinical studies up to approval and finally evaluated for their benefit and harm.
All work steps are conducted in close international (European) cooperation.
Publication: Policy Brief No. 002: http://eprints.aihta.at/1234/
Contact: Claudia Wild
Project / HTA-methods & steering instruments
Evidence-based reimbursement processes in Europe Part 1: Reimbursement decisions for medical procedures in Austria. An analysis of factors – besides clinical evidence – influencing reimbursement decisions for the hospital benefit catalogue
Project leaders: Gregor Goetz
Project team: Gregor Goetz
Duration: September 2020 – November 2020
Language: English (with German summary)
Project / Oncology, Prevention and screening, Health economics
Lung cancer screening in risk groups Systematic review(s) of effectiveness and utility (part 1) Costs and budgetary consequences (part 2)
Project leaders: Claudia Wild (part 1), Ingrid Zechmeister-Koss (part 2)
Project team:
- Thomas Semlitsch (IAVEM) & EUnetHTA partners (IQWIG, potentially others) (part 1)
- Christan Böhler, Sarah Wolf (part 2)
Duration: May 2020 – November 2020
Language: English with German summary
Publications:
HTA Project report No. 132a: http://eprints.aihta.at/1282/ (part 1)
HTA Projektbericht Nro 132b: https://eprints.aihta.at/1283 (part 2)
Project / High tech medicine, European collaboration
Minimally invasive surgical procedures for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH)
Project leaders: Judit Erdös
Project team: Judit Erdös
& EUnetHTA partners (RER, VASPVT, SNHTA, Azienda Zero)
Duration: May 2020 – January 2021
Language: English with German summary