European cooperation in the assessment of health technologies is expected to continue and even be stepped up after 2020. This is the result of the public consultation carried out between October 2016 and January 2017 by the European Commission. A summary of the responses was published on 15 May.
Health technologies include all technologies that are likely to be used for promoting health and preventing, diagnosing and treating diseases or for rehabilitation and long term healthcare. They also include medicines, devices, procedures and healthcare organisations. This health assessment will help the public authorities identified the efficiency of a new technology compared to those that already exist and in the long-term, orientate the allocation of available financial resources.
In total, the Commission has received some 250 replies to its public consultation of which half have come from the healthcare industry. Almost all the respondents acknowledged the usefulness of health assessment technologies, 81% considered current cooperation is useful to certain extent and 87% consider that this cooperation should continue beyond 2020 when the joint 3 EUnetHTA expires. 80% of those supporting European cooperation in this area think that the scope should include pharmaceutical products and 72% considered that medical technologies should be covered. The majority of respondents consider that this kind of cooperation should include, “voluntary participation with an obligation” to join the appropriate member state bodies working in this area.
The draft report can be seen at:
https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/health/files/technology_assessment/docs/20161020_frep_en.pdf. (Sophie Petitjean)