On July 03, 2020, the network of European HTA agencies, EUnetHTA, published the final report for the Rapid Relative Effectiveness Assessment OTCA24 ‘The 24-hour blood pressure measurement device Mobil-O- Graph® with the built-in algorithm ARCSolver® to measure arterial stiffness for the optimization of hypertension treatment.”

On behalf of the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) investigated whether (former) heavy smokers within statutory health insurance (SHI) should be offered lung cancer screening using low-dose computed tomography (LDCT).

In July 2020, two new apps entered the level 1 of the mHealthBelgium validation pyramid. Healthentia is an eClinical platform to record Real World Data, that can be used either in clinical trials or by healthy individuals. Sunrise (class IIa) sleep testing device allows rapid and at home diagnosing respiratory sleep disorders.

The Clinical Coding and Schedule Development (CCSD) group develops and maintains procedural and diagnostics nomenclature for private payers in England. New procedure codes concern planning, insertion, and removal of high/low dose rate radioactive treatment (brachytherapy) into a prostate tumor, open/laparoscopic repair of Spigelian hernia, and others. The codes are introduced with a recommended adoption date being the 1st of August 2020. The document also contains a list of textual changes in codes and unacceptable combinations. There were no changes to the CCSD Schedule of Diagnostic Tests.

In June 2020, santésuisse (the leading organization of Swiss health insurers) and the Swiss Society of Surgeons (FCMH) have submitted a proposal to the Federal Council for the acceptance of 67 lump-sum payment packages for out-patient services. In July 2020, eight more lump-sum payment packages were suggested to the Federal Council. More suggestions are expected in the near future.

In June 2020, the Andalusian Health Technology Assessment Department (AETSA) published an update of the earlier report (2012) on assessment of effectiveness and safety of tumor treating fields (TTF) therapy in glioblastoma.

In late June 2020, the Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) published funding priorities on its website. For the first time, the decision on the funding priorities was preceded by a consultation process. Healthcare stakeholders who are not members of the Innovation Committee were asked to come up with suggestions for funding topics and criteria.

The HTA body of the Tuscany Regional Healthcare issues two types of documents: HTA forms and motivational forms. With a regional decree 9004 of June 18, 2020, Tuscany Regional Healthcare has published assessments of nine medical devices of various therapeutic areas.

On July 14, 2020, the Belgian National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (INAMI-RIZIV) announced a new framework for reimbursement of the app supporting rehabilitation program for the total hip or knee replacement (moveUP app). The pilot study will start on October 1, 2020, in 15 hospitals. Reimbursement to other patients is planned to be established by September 2021.

The revised EBM (German Uniform Evaluation Standard) catalog came into force on July 1, 2020. MTRC has compiled the selection of the most significant changes.

In February 2020, the Office for Health Technology Assessment (HTA) of Basque Country OSTEBA published an HTA report for efficacy and safety of mechanical thrombectomy (MT) in the treatment of patients with ischaemic stroke beyond 6 hours after onset or with an unknown time of onset. According to the report, the use of MT, together with standard medical treatment (SMT) in such patients, is justified provided that they meet the neuroimaging selection criteria applied to the studies analyzed.