We are happy to announce the further expansion of our HEOR Department with Dr. Dharna Gupta, a dentist by training and a Health Economist by profession. Dharna holds a Master of Public Health degree in Health Policy, Economics & Finance from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India (2020). Dharna is a public health researcher with expertise in health systems and policy research, costing analysis, health economic modeling, economic evaluations, and value-based pricing in governmental settings. For the past three years, she was part of the HTA team at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, India, where she has worked on health economic models in the field of oncology, policy briefs and treatment guidelines at the state and national levels, and contributed to the educational modules on evidence-based medicine and health economics. If you are interested in learning about our capabilities in evidence synthesis, please, reach out to us to arrange a call to discuss your needs.

On June 29, 2023, the Dutch Healthcare Authority (NZa) published an update of the first release of the DRG package (RZ24a update) because of the request from the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport to recalculate the tariffs based on a corrected 2023 price index for material costs.

In June 2023, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published five new Interventional Procedure Guidance (intraoperative electron beam radiotherapy, minimally invasive fusionless posterior-approach surgery to correct idiopathic scoliosis, endoscopic ultrasound-guided gallbladder drainage, radiofrequency denervation for osteoarthritic knee pain, and Botulinum toxin type A injections into the urethral sphincter), two new Diagnostic Guidance (transperineal biopsy for prostate cancer, and FibroScan for liver fibrosis and cirrhosis), and two Medtech Innovation Briefings (MiraQ cardiac TTFM, Proov Confirm; their development started before April 2023). Also, four clinical guidelines were updated.

On June 30, 2023, the Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) published the decisions, recommending the transfer to standard care for two completed projects. The projects relate to the utilization of emergency care structures in Germany and implementation of patient guidelines for psychosocial therapies for patients with severe mental diseases.

On July 3, 2023, the document "Changes and innovations in the 2024 LKF model" (Änderungen und Neuerungen in den LKF-Modellen 2024) was published. The document summarizes the most significant changes and innovations in the LKF model for inpatient and outpatient care. The newly added procedure codes mainly concern endoscopic procedures, orthopedics, peripheral vascular, and pulmonary and airways fields.

On July 1, 2023, the National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (INAMI-RIZIV) updated the conditions of reimbursement for continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and intermittently scanned CGM (isCGM, commonly called flash glucose monitoring, FGM). Full coverage by health insurance became available to more patient categories.

MTRC shares the most relevant and impactful publications in the field of market access and HEOR for medical technologies in Europe through its Publications Digest. In a recent publication, Angelis et al. appraised the methodological changes proposed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in their recent review of HTA methods. The authors categorized proposed changes as critical, moderate, or limited updates and analyzed key decisions. The study found that most changes were appropriate and had a modest impact, although some decisions lacked justification. The authors emphasize the need for further research on certain topics and the importance of safeguarding NICE's role in resource allocation for valuable interventions while maintaining rigorous evidence standards.

On June 30, 2023, the Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) published the determined funding priorities for healthcare research projects (five topics) and clinical guidelines (four topics).

MTRC shares the most relevant and impactful publications in the field of market access and HEOR for medical technologies in Europe through its Publications Digest. In a recent publication, Martin et al. calculated the marginal cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) for different categories of care (primary care, locally commissioned secondary care, specialised services) using the data from 2016 and analysed the mortality response to healthcare expenditure on the three categories of care. The results revealed that additional investments in primary care and locally commissioned services are likely the most productive, suggesting the potential benefits of directing resources towards these categories of care.

MTRC shares the most relevant and impactful publications in the field of market access and HEOR for medical technologies in Europe through its Publications Digest. In a recent publication, Tervonen et al. aimed to establish good practices for developing rigorous quantitative benefit-risk assessments (qBRAs) and provide a checklist for their reporting. The study outlines the five main steps of qBRA development, including formulating the research question, selecting appropriate analysis models, evaluating attribute sets, choosing preference elicitation methods, and effectively communicating the results. In addition, the authors provided recommendations on each step and discussed suitable methods for preference elicitation, such as discrete choice experiments, threshold technique, and swing weighting.

On July 05, 2023, the new version of the List of reimbursable products and services (LPPR) was released. Five new reimbursement codes for reimbursement of digital medical devices for medical telemonitoring activities were introduced.

In June 2023, the Belgian Health Care Knowledge Center (KCE) published Health Services Research concerning the performance of the Belgian healthcare system. KCE regularly conducts such "check-ups" of the healthcare system in collaboration with Sciensano, the National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (INAMI/RIZIV), and the FPS Public Health. The conceptual framework and the list of performance indicators were revised and updated.