The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has today published Guidance on Budget Impact Analysis of Health Technologies in Ireland.

Dr Máirín Ryan, Director of Health Technology Assessment, HIQA said “To ensure consistency in the HTAs undertaken by the Authority and others, the Authority continues to develop guidelines on the conduct of HTA in Ireland.

“This guidance document provides an overview of the principles and methods that are used in assessing health technologies. They are intended to be 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.

“This document is designed to provide more detailed advice and examples to aid and support clinical guideline developers as well as other practitioners within the HSE tasked with conducting a budget impact analysis.

“It is also intended to inform technology assessments conducted by, or on behalf of the Health Information and Quality Authority, the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics, the Department of Health and the HSE, to include health technology suppliers preparing applications for reimbursement.” concluded Dr Ryan.

This guidance document has been developed in consultation with the HTA Scientific Advisory Group of the Authority. Providing broad representation from key stakeholders in healthcare in Ireland, this group includes methodological experts from the field of HTA.

This document is part of the series of guidelines that also includes the Guidelines for Economic Evaluation of Health Technologies in Ireland (2014), Guidelines for Budget Impact Analysis of Health Technologies in Ireland (2014), Guidelines for Stakeholder Engagement in Health Technology Assessment in Ireland (2014), Guidelines for Evaluating the Clinical Effectiveness of Health Technologies in Ireland (2014) and the Guidelines for the Retrieval and Interpretation of Economic Evaluations of Health Technologies in Ireland (2014).

ENDS.

Further Information: 

Suzanne O’Brien, Communications Manager, HIQA
01 814 7488 / 087 624 1216 sobrien@hiqa.ie

Notes to the Editor: 

• HIQA is the statutory organisation in Ireland with a responsibility to carry out national health technology assessments (HTAs) and to develop guidelines for the conduct of HTAs across our healthcare system.
• 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 Health Service Executive (HSE).