Including patient experience in health technology assessment

Capturing patient experience through extended value frameworks of health technologies

In the majority of developed countries Health Technology Assessment is an obligatory element of the public financing decision making process. Inclusion of the patients’ experience of the applied therapy has become increasingly important in assessing complex health technologies. However, no harmonized approach exists to help manufacturers or decision makers ensure patient experience considerations are fair, consistent, and thorough within global health technology assessment frameworks. Patient experience might be considered while making health policy related decisions, although the objective decision making is affected by various obstacles and makes it hard for developers of new technology to gather scientific evidence.

“In our study we used the results of a systematic literature review and expert focus groups to define five potential patient experience domains that could be used to assess the patient experience-related value of a health technology. The figure on the left shows the iterative development of the framework. The framework was developed to be used as an extension of existing value frameworks and to create new patient experience-focused value frameworks and to harmonize health technology assessment methods across different countries”, said dr. András Inotai, associate professor of the Center for Health Technology Assessment.