Health technology assessment

On July 15, 2024, the Austrian Institute for HTA (AIHTA) published three decision support documents that provide recommendations regarding the inclusion of new medical interventions in the catalog of individual medical services (MEL) for reimbursement, as well as two updates to previous decision support documents. The decisions relate to cardiovascular, peripheral vascular, interventional radiology, neuromodulation, and endocrine technology groups.

In March 2024, the Dutch Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) awarded subsidies under HTA Methodology Program for 2021-2024 for five projects intended for the development of a methodology for assessing technologies used in non-curative care.

In January-March 2023, the Austrian Institute for HTA published Rapid reviews of three health technologies: liposuction for the removal of subcutaneous (large) lipomas, biomarkers in Parkinson's disease, and the use of telepathology in intraoperative frozen section examination.

In February 2024, the Skåne University Hospital is working on several HTAs, including evaluations in the cardiovascular, e-health, endocrine, men’s health, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics fields.

On February 5, 2024, NICE published proposed methods and processes to include technology appraisal recommendations in the clinical guidelines and launched a consultation. The deadline for submitting comments is March 15, 2024.

In January 2024, the Dutch Healthcare Institute (ZIN) published an update of the “Guideline for conducting health economic evaluations”.

Dutch Healthcare Institute (ZIN) implemented the MedTech Horizon Scan to gain a better insight into the arrival of medical technological innovations).

The HTA body of the Tuscany Regional Healthcare issues three types of documents: full HTA reports, rapid HTA reports, and motivational forms. With regional decree 26990 of December 18, 2023, Tuscany Regional Healthcare has published assessments of three medical devices in the peripheral vascular, orthopedic, and dermatology areas.

In December 2023, the Austrian Institute for HTA published Rapid reviews of two health technologies: endovenous laser therapy for varicose veins of the lower extremities and autologous fat transplantation for osteoarthritis.

In December 2023, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) in England released two MedTech-related assessments in its Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Journal, which concerned ablative and non-surgical therapies for hepatocellular carcinoma and hidradenitis suppurativa treatment. HTA Journal publishes research reports on the effectiveness, costs, and broader impact of health technologies for those who use, manage, and provide care in the NHS and informs National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance.

In mid-November, the Federal Office of Public Health released an overview of the Swiss HTA program in a presentation “Bridging the Gap: How to Align HTA and Health Care Decision Making in Switzerland”.

In December 2023, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published one new Interventional Procedure Guidance (middle meningeal artery embolization for chronic subdural hematomas), one Technology Appraisal Guidance (Hybrid closed loop systems for managing blood glucose levels in type 1 diabetes, and one new clinical guideline.