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News and blog posts

21
Nov 2019

New regulation of video consultations in Germany

In order to promote the video consultations, the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) and the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband) have agreed on several new regulations. Thus, a video consultation will also be possible if the patient has not been previously treated by the doctor. For psychotherapies, the video consultations were reopened.
20
Nov 2019

Ongoing HTA assessments in Swedish Västra Götaland region

The HTA center of Swedish Västra Götaland region is aimed to work for the continuous development of knowledge-based care in the region and ensure that healthcare is supported by science and evaluation. Currently, Västra Götaland HTA-Centre works on several HTA projects related to medical procedures or devices: alertness therapy, MRI linac, and investigation, and treatment of PANS / PANDAS. After completion of assessments, the final reports would be released on the website of Västra Götaland region.
18
Nov 2019

Epigenetic diagnosis for the primary tumors of unknown origin assessed by Spanish AETSA

In September 2019, the Andalusian Health Technology Assessment Department (AETSA) has released an assessment report regarding the evaluation of epigenetic profiling to classify cancer of unknown primary (EPICUP). It was observed that people received empirical therapy without considering the results of EPICUP had a three times higher risk of dying compared to those with specific treatment of the location of the primary tumor, adjusting due to possible confounding factors.
15
Nov 2019

Chromosome analysis on DNA chips in oncological conditions evaluated by French HAS

In September 2019, the French High Authority for Health released an assessment report for analysis on DNA chips (ACPA) in different types of oncological conditions to determine its place in comparison with more conventionally used techniques. The ACPA allows to detect a large number of copy number of variations at the whole genome level, ploidy abnormalities, and heterozygosity losses; it is of interest as a cytogenetic technique with some specific advantages among existing technologies.
13
Nov 2019

Surgical treatment of abdominal rectus diastasis HTA released in Swedish Örebro County Council

In Sweden, the Centre for Assessment of Medical Technology (CAMTÖ) leads the development of HTA cooperation in the healthcare region Uppsala-Örebro. In September 2019, CAMTÖ released a systematic review on surgical treatment of abdominal rectus diastasis one year after delivery. The literature search was performed, only one RCT was identified, but as the design of the study was associated with a high risk of bias, no conclusions could be drawn.
12
Nov 2019

Seventeen new procedure and sixteen diagnostics codes added to private reimbursement schedule in England

The Clinical Coding and Schedule Development (CCSD) group develops and maintains procedural and diagnostics nomenclature for private payers in England. New procedure codes concern scar revision, robotic-assisted thymectomy, prophylactic oophorectomy/ hysterectomy, percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, delivery of fraction of proton beam therapy for non-ocular adult tumors and diagnostic codes for myriad breast and ovarian cancer panel 101 test, clinical exome sequencing MPLA test, and others. The codes are introduced with a recommended adoption date being the 1st of February 2020. The documents also contain a list of textual changes in codes and inactivated codes.