Although the report excluded medical technologies from scope, it includes useful information about the concept of innovative payment schemes, taxonomy, challenges of such approaches and provides an overview of international experience.

French National Authority for Health (HAS) released new decisions about add-on and medical aid reimbursement of 9 medical devices from the meetings of the National Commission for Evaluation of Medical Devices and Health Technologies (CNEDiMTS) in May and April. Among others decision included MRI compatible and recharge free spinal cord stimulation devices, resorbable plates for osteosynthesis.

The Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWIG) published final report of evaluation of extracorporeal shock wave therapy in patients with heel. Results demonstrated benefit of the extracorporeal treatment in comparison with placebo, ultrasound and iontophoresis.

AETSA aimed to establish recommendations for clinical practice on hip arthroplasty in patients with osteoarthritis through a systematic appraisal of evidence. High-level recommendations for hip arthroplasty and selection of type of implants were made.

An updated form for notification of medical technology to Italian national health technology assessment program has been released in May. Any stakeholder, including industry, can make notification, which will be reviewed and prioritize every six months.

Swedish Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Assessment of Social Services (SBU) is working on three health technology assessment projects, related to medical technologies and in-vitro diagnostics, including diagnostics of prostate cancer, diagnostics of endometriosis and surgery for arm fractures in elderly.

The National Board (Socialstyrelsen) has developed a new national guideline for the treatment of stroke with a significant focus on mechanical thrombectomy. MTRC provides an overview of key recommendations, which concern diagnosis and treatment phase using medical technologies.

In 2016, the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) commissioned the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) to perform evaluation of controlled active motion (CAM) in patients with rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament. The final report of assessment was published on May of 2017. No definite conclusion can be made in relation to comparative efficacy and safety of studied technologies due to lack of evidence.

MTRC has completed reimbursement report for robotic surgery in 11 EU countries. Procedure codes are available only in number of geographies, including Belgium, Denmark, England, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. Robotic-specific procedure codes are not available in Austria, France, Italy and the Netherlands.

Belgian Health Care Knowledge Center has released new clinical guidelines for evaluation and management of low back pain without serious underlying cause and radicular pain (including neurogenic claudication). It has number of implications for medical procedures, including transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, radiofrequency denervation, disk replacement, spine fusion and other.

MTRC is working on the number of reimbursement reports including robotic surgery, ablation of heart tissue for atrial fibrillation, coronary imaging and interventional procedures, mechanical thrombectomy for stroke, peripheral intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), and peripheral vascular procedures on veins for deep vein thrombosis.

In 2014, Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) commissioned Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) to conduct health technology assessment of different approaches for lung volume reduction in patients with severe pulmonary emphysema. And now IQWiG has published the final report. The main conclusion is that it was not possible to draw any conclusion about relative effectiveness of bronchoscopic and surgical methods due to lack of the data.