Public feedback is being sought on two draft national guidelines for health technology assessment, published today by the Health Information and Quality Authority.

Dr Máirín Ryan, Director of HTA at HIQA, said: “There is a growing awareness of the relevance and value of HTA, so we need to ensure that best practice is adhered to. These draft national guidelines provide an overview of the principles and methods used in assessing health technologies. They are intended as a guide for all those who are involved in the conduct or use of HTA in Ireland, promoting the production of assessments that are timely, reliable, consistent and relevant to the needs of decision makers and key stakeholders in Ireland.

The Draft Guidelines for the Retrieval and Interpretation of Economic Evaluations of Health Technologies outline best practice in the interpretation of economic evaluations in the context of the Irish healthcare system. Applying the guidelines has the potential to improve the efficiency of the technology assessment process by maximising the use of relevant published evidence and avoiding unnecessary duplication of effort.

The updated Draft Guidelines for Evaluating the Clinical Effectiveness of Health Technologies in Ireland outline the appropriate methods for evaluating the clinical effectiveness of health technologies. The updated guidelines, originally published in 2011, are aimed at improving the accuracy of HTAs undertaken for the Irish healthcare system.

Dr Ryan said: “These guidelines present clear and solid advice to both the people who produce HTAs, and to those who have to make the hard decisions about funding technologies. The Authority believes that these guidelines will contribute to better technology assessment and thereby make best possible use of healthcare resources.”

The Authority is making these guidelines available for public consultation until 29 August 2014. The draft guidelines and information on taking part in the consultation are available here.

Further Information: 

Sinead Whooley, Communications Manager, Health Information and Quality Authority
Tel: 01 814 7488/ 087 922 1941 Email: swhooley@hiqa.ie

Notes to the Editor: 

• HIQA has a statutory remit to evaluate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of health technologies, providing advice to the Minister for Health and to the HSE.
• Health technology assessment addresses a range of issues associated with the introduction of a health technology, such asits clinical effectiveness; cost-effectiveness; budget impact; ethical, legal, social, organisational and resource implications.
• These guidelines are part of a suite of guidelines for health technology assessment.
• The guidelines apply to HTA being conducted by, or on behalf of HIQA, the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics, the Department of Health, and the HSE.
• They should, additionally, prove valuable to clinical guideline developers preparing national guidelines for quality assurance by the National Clinical Effectiveness Committee and subsequent endorsement by the Minister for Health. The new guidelines have been developed to assist researchers with the retrieval, quality assessment and interpretation of existing economic evaluation literature. Directly applying results from international literature to Ireland may pose a challenge unless specific concerns about the transferability of clinical and economic data are first addressed.