Science & Healthcare

Introduction. Healthcare organizations in most cases are the starting point for new (innovative) technologies. The implementation of new technologies in practice, as a rule, leads to the replacement or modernization of those already used, which creates the need for reliable and reasonable information about the value and benefits of new technologies in comparison with the existing standard practice.

Objective: to analyze international experience of the effectiveness of implementing and using the Hospital-based Health Technology Assessment (HTA) system in the practice of healthcare organizations.

Search strategy. A literature search was conducted in the MEDLINE (PubMed), Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CRD (Univ. Of York) databases with the following keywords: “Hospital-based Health Technology Assessment”. As inclusion criteria were identified studies in English, published until June 2018, in which qualitative, quantitative or mixed data were presented on the effects or impact of the HTA system on the activities of independent healthcare organizations. According to the search strategy, 282 publications were presented in the above databases. After reviewing the abstracts, 42 eligible studies were included in the analysis.

Results. Despite the relative limitations of published studies examining the effectiveness of using the Hospital-based HTA system, it has been widely reported on the positive impact of the Hospital-based HTA on the decision-making process on the viability of implementing or refusing to implement various health technologies, and also about the positive perception of managers and clinicians.

The independent Hospital-based HTA Unit, being the most frequently used model in European countries, has several advantages from the depth, high quality and rigor of the HTA process in healthcare organizations. The fact that the Hospital-based HTA Unit works in partnership with all stakeholders in the field of health technologies and its relative independence from the medical and management personnel of healthcare organization can be a key element in the strategic development of healthcare organization and the development of partnership with HTA agencies at national (state) or regional level.

Conclusions. Based on data from international experience, the implementation and using the Hospital-based HTA system is an effective strategy to ensure the possibility of making informed managerial on the viability of implementing and using various health technologies in practice, which allows to create the basis for the financial stability of healthcare organizations and identify key areas for strategic development.