Health technology assessment

In August 2021, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published three new Interventional Procedure Guidance (magnetic resonance therapy for knee osteoarthritis, laparoscopic removal of uterine fibroids with power morcellation, hysteroscopic mechanical tissue removal for uterine fibroids), and six new Medtech Innovation Briefings (PLASMA system with button electrode, Immunoscore, MMprofiler, Patient Status Engine, lung texture analysis, Colli-Pee). Also, five clinical guidelines were published.

At the end of August, the complete method assessment for continuous glucose measurement for patients with type I diabetes with the main focus on patients over 18 years old was initiated as a part of a “New Method” framework. The assessment will be carried out at the National Institute of Public Health; besides the use of continuous glucose monitoring, flash glucose monitoring is considered as well.

The HTA body of the Tuscany Regional Healthcare issues two types of documents: HTA forms and motivational forms. With a regional decree 14763 of August 25, 2021, Tuscany Regional Healthcare has published assessments of thirteen medical devices of various therapeutic areas, including devices belonging to the obstetrics and gynecology field, as well as gastroenterology, urology, cardiovascular, endoscopy, spine, peripheral vascular, and other fields of care.

In August 2021, the mini-HTA evaluation of the robot-assisted percutaneous coronary intervention was released. The method was described as safe and effective. After the introduction into the clinical practice, the method should be followed up for two years with a sufficient number of procedures to understand the real benefit. All procedures are to be registered in the Norwegian Registry for Invasive Cardiology.

In mid-August 2021, the Finnish Coordinating Center for Health Technology Assessment announced the release of the four accomplished rapid hospital assessments (HTA) performed by the Helsinki University Hospital. The accomplished rapid HTAs concern the cardiovascular, peripheral vascular, and endoscopy technology groups.

On August 17, 2021, the National Institute of Public Health released a rapid HTA report on the evaluation of PD-L1 assays in urothelial carcinoma commissioned by the Ordering Forum. This assessment does not provide any conclusions on the effectiveness of various treatment strategies in the treatment of urothelial carcinoma in adults.

On August 19, 2021, the Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency has announced the withdrawal of the assessments of the MammaPrint and EndoPredict tests for various reasons.

On August 23, 2021, the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) has presented an updated draft version (6.1) of its general methods. The interested parties can submit written comments until the deadline of October 4, 2021.

At the end of August 2021, the Swedish Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency (TLV) has initiated a theme survey on digital image diagnostics to identify new and innovative technology that may become important in Swedish healthcare. This could lead to potential inclusion of the technology in the Orderly introduction of medical technologies framework. The suggestions could be submitted no later than September 24, 2021.

The Scottish Health Technologies Group (SHTG) is a national health technology assessment (HTA) agency providing advice to NHSScotland on the use of new and existing health technologies (excluding medicines), likely to have a significant impact on healthcare. In the second quarter of 2021, SHTG published only one assessment on the detection of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation in patients with newly diagnosed ischaemic stroke.

At the beginning of August 2021, the European Network for Health Technology Assessment, EUnetHTA, released a final report on the surgical procedures for the treatment of obesity. The results suggest little or no difference in the effects of different bariatric surgery procedures on weight loss and diabetes control. However, the results are based mainly on low to very low certainty evidence, with few or even single studies providing data for many of the comparisons.

On August 11, 2021, the Dutch Healthcare Institute (ZIN) published the assessment of Oncotype DX®. The assessment was conducted to confirm whether the test complies with the criteria of "science and practice" to determine if it can be reimbursed under the basic health insurance package. In conclusion, the test can be reimbursed under the basic health insurance package.