HTA 101: Introduction to Health Technology Assessment

Clifford S. Goodman, Ph.D.
The Lewin Group
January 2004

---

Table of Contents

• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• INTRODUCTION
  • Origins of Technology Assessment
  • Early Health Care Technology Assessment
• FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS AND ISSUES
  • Health Technology
    • Material Nature
    • Purpose or Application
    • Stage of Diffusion
  • Health Technology Assessment
    • Purposes of HTA
    • Basic HTA Orientations
    • Timing of Assessment
  • Properties and Impacts Assessed
    • Measuring Health Outcomes
    • Performance of Diagnostic Technologies
  • Types of Organizations That Conduct HTA
  • Expertise for Conducting HTA
  • Ten Basic Steps of HTA
• PRIMARY DATA AND INTEGRATIVE METHODS
  • Types of Methodological Validity
  • Primary Data Methods
    • Some Fundamental Attributes
    • Alternative Methods Offer Tradeoffs in Validity
    • RCTs Not Best Design for All Questions
    • Collecting New Primary Data
    • Primary Data Collection Trends Relevant to HTA
  • Integrative Methods
    • Meta-analysis
    • Modeling
    • Consensus Develoopment
• COST ANALYSIS METHODS
  • Main Types of Cost Analysis
  • Quandrants of Cost-Effectiveness
  • Key Attributes of Cost Analyses
  • Collecting Cost Data Alongside Clinical Studies
• APPRAISING THE EVIDENCE
  • Appraising Individual Studies
  • Decide How to Use Studies
  • Appraising a Body of Evidence
  • Link Recommendations to Evidence
• DETERMINING TOPICS FOR HTA
  • Identify Candidate Topics
  • • Horizon Scanning
  • Setting Assessment Priorities
  • Specify the Assessment Problem
    • Problem Elements
    • Causal Pathways
  • Reassessment and the Moving Target Problem
• RETRIEVING EVIDENCE FOR HTA
  • Types of Sources
  • Gray Literature
  • Publication Bias
  • Help for Searchers
• DISSEMINATING FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
  • Competing for Attention
  • Dissemination Dimensions
  • Dissemination Plan
  • Mediating Access
• MONITORING IMPACT OF HTA
  • Attributing Impact to HTA Reports
  • Factors Mediating Impact
• SELECTED ISSUES IN HTA
  • Locus of Assessment: "Make or Buy?"
  • Quality of Care and HTA
  • Outcomes Research and HTA
  • Decentralization of HTA
  • Barriers to HTA
  • HTA and Underused Technologies
  • Conflict of Interest
• APPENDIX A. SUGGESTED READINGS IN HTA
  • Origins and Evolution of Technology Assessment
  • Overview of HTA
  • Priority Setting
  • Randomized Controlled Trials
  • HTA of Diagnostic and Screening Technologies
  • Evidence in HTA
  • Cost-Effectiveness and Related Economic Analyses
  • Meta-Analysis
  • Decision Analysis
  • Consensus Development
  • Health-Related Quality of Life Measures
  • Ethical, Legal, Social, and Political Issues
  • HTA and Quality of Care
  • Searching the HTA Literature
• GLOSSARY
• REFERENCES

Next Section NICHSR Home Page

Last reviewed: 20 July 2007
Last updated: 20 July 2007
First published: 17 August 2004
Metadata| Permanence level: Permanent: Stable Content
Previous version

Copyright, Privacy, Accessibility
U.S. National Library of Medicine, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894
National Institutes of Health, Health & Human Services