Health tech

Question 1

health technology assessment

Answer 1

The World Health Organisation defines health technology assessment (HTA) as “the systematic evaluation of properties, effects and/or impacts of health technologies and interventions. It covers both the direct, intended consequences of technologies and interventions and their indirect, unintended consequences. The approach is used to inform policy and decision-making in health care, especially on how best to allocate limited funds to health interventions and technologies. The assessment is conducted by interdisciplinary groups using explicit analytical frameworks, drawing on clinical, epidemiological, health economic and other information and methodologies. It may be applied to interventions, such as including a new medicine into a reimbursement scheme, rolling-out broad public health programmes (such as immunization or screening for cancer), priority setting in health care, identifying health interventions that produce the greatest health gain and offer value for money, setting prices for medicines and other technologies based on their cost–effectiveness, and formulating clinical guidelines.”

In the UK, health technology assessment has become synonymous with the work of the National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE). Their assessments are typically based on high quality evidence syntheses including systematic reviews, health economic analysis, and decision modelling.

Question 2

Key points critical appraisal of systematic reviews

Answer 2

• What question did the systematic review address - What is best, where do i find this info, main quesiton should be clearly states and in title, abstract, intro.
• Is it unlikely that impotant, relevant studies were missed - Methods should describe startegy, results outlines titles and abstracts reviewd. STrat with major databases and references lists from relevant studies etc…
• Were the crtiera used to select articles for inclusion appropriate - methods describe and define.
• Were the included studies sufficiently valid for type of quesiton asked - The Methods section should describe the assessment of quality and the criteria used. The Results section should provide information on the quality of the individual studies. Article should describe how wlautiy each study assessed
• Were the results simialr forms tudy to study - The Results section should state whether the results are heterogeneous and discuss possible reasons. The forest plot should show the results of the chi-square test for heterogeneity and if discuss reasons for heterogeneity, if present. . Ideally reuslts of diff studies be similar or homogenous.