Policy processes and health technology assessment

Decision-makers throughout Europe have a common goal of raising health standards in order to improve the health status of the European population. Health service delivery is carried out under conditions of growing political and economic complexity – rapid technological change puts pressure on healthcare systems to add new preventive, diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitative interventions to their existing arsenal of technologies. This pressure is ongoing and it is difficult for providers of health services to live up to the expectations of all users. Limited resources require decisions on the introduction of new technologies and the use of those already available. Health technology assessment (HTA) provides evidence-based input to the policy-making processes concerning the use of technology in health services and thereby seeks to promote evidence informed policy-making. It has the potential to function as a mediating mechanism between policy and research domains by providing a problem oriented systematic overview of research. However, this is dependent upon HTA producers having a thorough and detailed knowledge about policy-making and its conditions, and its users being aware (and having positive experiences) of the use of HTA. This need to share knowledge and experiences between producers and users sets the standard for future success in ensuring evidence informed policy-making. Therefore, the utilization of HTA in policy-making depends very much on mutual understanding and responsiveness to user needs.