Assessing the clinical benefit to patients from health technologies has improved further today with the publication of new guidelines by the Health Information and Quality Authority.

Developed following consultation with key stakeholders, this document sets out new guidelines to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of health technologies for the Irish health service. These new Guidelines for Evaluating the Clinical Effectiveness of Health Technologies in Ireland provide direction on how to measure the ability of a healthcare technology to make a significant difference to a patient’s health status.

In the current economic climate, health technology assessments play a vital public-interest role. The Authority believes that these guidelines contribute to better technology assessment and thereby help deliver safer better healthcare to the public.

Martin Flattery, Head of HTA Research and Planning at HIQA, said: “By applying the guidelines decision makers can be more assured that the technology that they are requested to fund has a clinically significant impact on patient’s health and will be of greater benefit than the existing standard of care. The guidance will also support effective decision making around the allocation of funding for health technologies.”

These guidelines are the third in a series of HTA guidelines published by the Authority, following guidelines on economic evaluation and guidelines on budget impact analysis. Collectively, these guidelines aim to promote best practice in the performance of HTA by all those who undertake this work on behalf of healthcare services in Ireland.

Consultation with stakeholders on compiling guidelines is an important part of HIQA’s work to deliver better understanding of health technology assessment and therefore help drive sustainable improvement in the quality and safety of healthcare in Ireland.

The Authority is recommending that these guidelines be applied to HTAs being conducted on all healthcare treatments, including medications, procedures, medical devices, and broader public health initiatives. They are relevant to the assessment of both new and existing healthcare technologies.

ENDS

Further Information: 

Sinead Whooley, Communications Manager, Health Information and Quality Authority
Tel: 01 8147488/ 087 9221941; Email: swhooley@hiqa.ie

Notes to the Editor: 

Clinical Effectiveness Guidelines provide guidance on the methods to be used when evaluating the clinical effectiveness of health technologies as part of health technology assessment (HTA) in Ireland.

The guidance is the third in a series of HTA guidelines being published by the Authority. The aim of the HTA guidelines is to produce HTAs that provide decision makers with information that is useful, relevant and timely and to ensure that healthcare interventions used in Ireland are clinically effective for patients, are affordable, and are good value for money.

The first of these guidelines, the economic evaluation guidelines, published by HIQA last year, addressed both the cost of such technologies and the health benefits associated with them.

The second of these guidelines, ‘budget impact analysis’ (BIA), also published in 2010, helps to predict the potential additional financial impact of the use of a new technology in a healthcare system with finite resources.

The guidelines will apply to HTA being conducted by, or on behalf of the Health Information and Quality Authority, the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics, the Department of Health, and the Health Service Executive (HSE).