PET/CT

On February 08, 2024, the Austrian Institute for HTA (AIHTA) published the 2023 annual HTA report. The report contains AIHTA works, activities, and publications in 2023, including medical technologies belonging to technology groups such as robotic surgery, diagnostic imaging, and neurology.

In July 2023, Dutch Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) awarded 13 projects under the 2024 Round of the Efficiency Research program, including four projects in surgery, two projects for imaging diagnostics and one project on the AI-based algorithms in emergency settings.

On December 1, 2022, the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health published the changes that will occur to the Services Ordinance (KLV/OPre), which determines coverage of medical services in Switzerland. The updates will enter into force on January 1, 2023, and they relate to the list of explicitly evaluated services (Annex 1 of KLV/OPre), outpatient-before-hospital services (Annex 1a), List of Tools and Appliances(Annex 2), and List of Analyses (Annex 3).

In September 2022, the Dutch Healthcare Institute (Zorginstituut Nederland, ZIN) announced three more projects which received a subsidy under the "Subsidy scheme for promising care" in 2022 for research of PET/CT scan instead of CT scan for post-screening in lung cancer, treatment for head and neck cancer that spares lymph nodes in the neck and surgery to prevent lymphedema after cancer treatment. In total, eight projects will receive a subsidy in 2022.

In the first half of July 2022, 13 new procedure codes were introduced by the Code Service of the Finnish National Health and Wellbeing Institution (THL). The introduced codes are dedicated to diagnostic imaging, surgical procedures, radiology, and some other fields.

On May 31, 2022, it was announced by the Ministry of Health that the Council of Ministers authorized the distribution of almost €400 million for the renovation of high-tech equipment in the National Health System (SNS) through the High-End Technology Equipment Investment Plan (INVEAT) of the SNS.

The revised EBM (German Uniform Evaluation Standard) catalog came into force on April 1, 2022. The most significant changes concern the introduction of new additional flat rates for the observation and care of patients who are given certain medications, adjustment of EBM reproductive medicine definitions, and inclusion of several new codes for PET and PET/CT.

On February 21, 2022, it was announced by the Ministry of Health that the public consultation regarding the Draft Order amending the Common Package of Benefits of the National Health System (SNS) was open. The amendments and clarifications are related to the fields of in-vitro diagnostics, ENT, pulmonary and airways, e-health, neurology, dental care, radiology, and enteral nutrition.

On January 18, 2022, the Ministry of Health has awarded the Framework Agreement for the acquisition of 81 linear accelerators included in the High-End Technology Equipment Investment Plan. Furthermore, the National Institute of Health Management (INGESA) has also initiated the processing of the Framework Agreement that will facilitate the acquisition of the equipment in the fields of interventional cardiology, interventional vascular radiology, interventional neurovascular, digital brachytherapy, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, PET-CT, SPECT-CT.

In late May 2021, the Clinical Coding and Schedule Development (CCSD) working group, which develops and maintains procedural and diagnostics nomenclature for private payers in England, has published Bulletins 0177 and 0074 with changes to be implemented not later than August 01, 2021. Five new procedure codes related to diagnostic imaging, ENT, breast reconstruction, and gynecology, and nine new diagnostic codes were introduced.

The revised EBM (German Uniform Evaluation Standard) catalog for ambulatory reimbursement in Germany came into force on October 1, 2020. MTRC has compiled the selection of the most significant changes, concerning In-vitro diagnostics, telemedicine and vacuum wounds therapy.

In July 2020, the Austrian Institute for Health Technology Assessment (AIHTA) issued an updated report on the PET/PET-CT evidence for need-based planning in Austria.