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AIHTA is an academic 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.

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Announcement

Biodegradable stents for the treatment of refractory or recurrent benign oesophageal stenosis

Biodegradable ("resorbable") esophageal stents to treat benign refractory and/ or recurrent esophageal strictures were recently developed as alternatives to self-expanding metal stents (SEMS) and self-ex¬pandierenden plastic stent (SEPS). Only one product - the SX-ELLA stent Esophageal Degradable ™ BD - holds CE marking (since 2007) on the European market. Only a few studies of very low quality were available for the assessment of efficacy and safety. Currently, the biodegradable esophageal stents is an experimental procedure in an early stage of use.

Publication: Decision Support Document Nr. 89: https://eprints.aihta.at/1067/

Contact: Claudia Wild

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Announcement

Background Analysis for National HTA Strategy for Lithuania: Focus on Medical Devices

Health policy goals in Lithuania until 2020 include increasing transparency, cost-effectiveness and rational use of resources. Despite repeated initiatives, a systematic application of HTA is so far not in place in Lithuania. In the context of a EU funded project we formulated a HTA-Strategy for Lithuania (https://eprints.aihta.at/1064). For this we undertook a background analysis of the Lithuanian healthcare system, together with local partners. We locally conducted 19 expert interviews with stakeholders. In addition a systematic search of the literature was made for HTA strategy papers, complemented by hand searches. The recommendations developed for Lithuania (and activities proposed) based on this analytical report are published in a separate document, the HTA-Strategy for Lithuania (https://eprints.aihta.at/1064).

More generally it was found that the regulatory environment is essential for the role of HTA. HTA’s impact is greatest, when conducted for supporting concrete decisions. Timely HTAs of good quality with clear messages are important. Not only HTA products themselves require transparency, also the entire HTA process (from topic selection to implementation) demands it for ultimate acceptability of the method. HTA needs to be independent from health policy and from providers (professions, industry) in order to be respected, which also requires a stable funding-basis for HTA.

Publication: Decision Support Document No. 90: https://eprints.aihta.at/1063

Contact: Claudia Wild

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Announcement

HTA-Strategy for Lithuania

The HTA-Strategy for Lithuania was formulated based on a thorough analysis of the Lithuanian health care system (“Background Analysis for National HTA Strategy for Lithuania - Focus on Medical Devices”: https://eprints.aihta.at/1063). It aims to boost the use of HTA-information in Lithuania. Its goals are to support the establishment of both a framework to promote, enforce and facilitate the uptake of HTA and of the necessary organizational structures for the timely, efficient and good-quality provision of HTA-information.

Recommendations and short/ medium/ long terms suggestions for implementation activities are presented for four strategic objectives: regulatory embedding and ensuring legitimacy of HTA; organization of HTA; quality assurance of HTA; capacity building for HTA.

A change of culture (in decision making) takes time. The ultimate success of the HTA-Strategy for Lithuania will be for its health sector stakeholders to increasingly take ownership of the HTA process. In the meantime the HTA-Strategy for Lithuania proposes that raising awareness for HTA works best by successfully realizing “flagship projects” that increase the quality of patient services, decrease inappropriate or even harmful interventions or create savings that can be reinvested for other services.

Publication: Decision Support Document No. 90a: https://eprints.aihta.at/1064

Contact: Claudia Wild

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Project / Rehabilitation and occupational therapy

Outpatient cardiac rehabilitation, part VII: Economic evaluation

Project team: Heinz Tüchler

Duration: April 2015 – June 2016
Publication: LBI-HTA Project report N0. 89 https://eprints.aihta.at/1102/

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Note: this content is only available in German.

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Announcement

Evaluation of individual medical procedures 2015 - Reports

We are pleased to introduce our new reports.

Decision Support Documents 2015:

DSD 81: Fully bioresorbable scaffolds for coronary artery disease
https://eprints.aihta.at/1060
DSD 82: Transcatheter mitral valve-in-valve implantation (TMViVI)
https://eprints.aihta.at/1058
DSD 83: Endovascular embolization of unruptured intracranial aneurysms with flow diverters
https://eprints.aihta.at/1054
DSD 84: Defibrotide for the treatment and prophylaxis of hepatic veno-occlusive disease
https://eprints.aihta.at/1061
DSD 85: Intrastromal corneal implants for ectatic corneal disorders
https://eprints.aihta.at/1055
DSD 86: Sphenopalatine Ganglion (SPG) stimulation of patients with therapy-resistant cluster headache
https://eprints.aihta.at/1062
DSD 87: Injectable bulking agents for faecal incontinence
https://eprints.aihta.at/1059

+2 Updates:

DSD 44/ 2^nd Update 2015: Percutaneous left atrial appendage closure for the prevention of thromboembolic events in patients with atrial fibrillation
https://eprints.aihta.at/1056

DSD 68/ 1^st Update 2015: Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) of periphery arteries with drug-eluting balloon (DEB)
https://eprints.aihta.at/1057

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Note: this content is only available in German.