EUnetHTA published a project plan for the surgical methods for treating people with morbid obesity

In August 2020, the network of European HTA agencies, EUnetHTA, announced the final plan of the project OTCA26 “Surgical procedures for treatment of obesity.” The key question of the assessment is bariatric surgery for the treatment of adults with obesity.

This project is being executed by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH). Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) in Ireland is the co-author and dedicated reviewer. The dedicated reviewers are the Spanish Agency for Health Quality and Assessment of Catalonia (AQuAS), French High Authority of Health (HAS), and State Health Care Accreditation Agency (VASPVT) in Lithuania.

This rapid assessment addresses the research question on what is the relative effectiveness and safety of current bariatric surgery procedures for the treatment of adults with obesity. The relevance of the topic lies in evidence suggesting that bariatric surgery decreases the risk of premature death and other physical morbidities, but the effectiveness and safety of different surgical procedures may differ.

In the assessment it will be described the technical characteristics of technology (TEC) under assessment (i.e., type of device, procedure), health problem and current use of the technology (CUR) (i.e., target condition, target group), clinical effectiveness (EFF) (i.e., relative health benefits), and safety (SAF) (i.e., unwanted or harmful effects). It is aimed to assess relative effectiveness and safety at both short and long-term follow-up.

The HTA Core Model for Rapid Relative Effectiveness Assessment (REA) (version 4.2) will be the primary source for selecting assessment elements.

Information specialist Tonje Lehne Refsdal (TLR) will develop the search strategy with the assistance of the project manager. As a starting point, TLR will use search terms from relevant papers identified in the scoping search to develop the new search strategy. After the peer review of the search strategy by another information specialist Gyri Hval (GH), and a EUnetHTA partner (Emmanuelle Blondet, HAS), the search strategy will be finalized. The search will not be limited by language or publication status. The search strategy will be based on the agreed PICOs. The search via the following electronic databases will be performed: Cochrane Library (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials), Epistemonikos, Embase (Ovid), MEDLINE (Ovid), ISI Web of Science, Guidelines International Network (G-I-N), NICE guidance, NIHR-HTA, HTAi vortal, PROSPERO, POP database, Clinical Trials, WHO ICTRP Search Portal, EU Clinical Trials Register. The search will also be performed for ongoing and planned systematic reviews in PROSPERO and the POP databases and for terminated, completed, and published, completed and unpublished, and ongoing primary studies in ClinicalTrials.gov, WHO ICTRP, and EU Clinical Trials Register.

The final version of this rapid assessment is expected to be published in April 2021.

The full details in English can be found here.

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