The principles of Health Technology Assessment in laboratory medicine

Abstract

The Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is a multi-professional and multidisciplinary evaluation approach designed to assess health technology in the broadest sense of the term, from its instruments to the rearranging of its organizational structures. It is by now an established methodology at national and international levels that involves several medical disciplines thanks to its versatility. Laboratory medicine is one of these disciplines. Such specialization was subjected, in recent years, to deep changes even from an organizational standpoint, in order to meet the health needs of the population, making them as effective and cost-effective as possible. In this regard, HTA was the tool used to assess implications in different areas.

Technology and sport for health promotion: A bibliometric analysis

“…For example, in speed skating, it has been claimed that half of the progress of world records to date have been as a result of changes in technology with the other half from real athletic improvement (Hemphill, 2009;Holowchak, 2002;Howe, 2011;Loland, 2008Loland, -2009. Additionally, if a change in sports technology is implemented, its impact in a sport can often be clearly identified (Liguori, 2017). The implementation of technology has a significant impact in cycling, the 100 m sprint, and the javelin as well as the pole vault, long jump, high jump, triple jump, amputee sprinting and swimming .…”

Integrated diagnostics

“…Overcoming this hurdle will not be easy, since public funding in healthcare is substantially declining everywhere around the world, due to the residual effect of an unprecedented economic crisis ( 68 ). The use of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) can be seen as a valuable solution for this problem, whereby the HTA definition per se encompasses a multi-professional and multidisciplinary assessment of cost-effectiveness of health technologies, based on active involvement of many different medical and diagnostic disciplines ( 69 ). Clear demonstration that an earlier and more accurate diagnosis will determine a return of initial investment for implementing integrated diagnostic platforms will lead the way to increased interest and funding.…”

“…Overcoming this hurdle will not be easy, since public funding in healthcare is substantially declining everywhere around the world, due to the residual effect of an unprecedented economic crisis (68). 69). Clear demonstration that an earlier and more accurate diagnosis will determine a return of initial investment for implementing integrated diagnostic platforms will lead the way to increased interest and funding.…”

Improving quality in the preanalytical phase through innovation, on behalf of the European Federation for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) Working Group for Preanalytical Phase (WG-PRE)

“…This practice is essential at a local level, but the role of preanalytical phase experts will also be important for defining and evaluating the general characteristics of devices and/or procedures [10]. Notably, the use of health technology assessment (HTA) for evaluating new technologies and devices is universally appreciated by national/regional healthcare systems, but will increasingly be used in the field of in vitro diagnostic testing [20]. A machine learning approach using computer-assisted programs may also emerge as a breakthrough for evaluating and interpreting laboratory data, especially for validating reference ranges in association with many other individual and demographical characteristics.…”