Value for money key to HIQA guidelines on HTAs

Dr Mairín Ryan

By Gary Culliton

gary.culliton@imt.ie

HIQA has published new guidelines for the economic evaluation of health technologies in Ireland, which will standardise how evaluations are produced.

“HIQA, the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics and academic units will all use these guidelines,” HIQA’s Director of Health Technology Assessments (HTAs) Dr Mairín Ryan told Irish Medical Times. “Decision makers can evaluate submissions and ensure they have been done in a robust, consistent and relevant way.”

The guidelines will apply to all healthcare treatments, including medications, procedures, medical devices and broader public health initiatives, and according to Dr Ryan, they are relevant to the assessment of both new and existing healthcare technologies.

“The findings of any such HTA will have implications for patient groups, the public, clinicians, independent healthcare providers, academic groups and the manufacturing industry, as well as the publicly funded healthcare system. Economic evaluations… will provide value-for-money information to those making decisions about the allocation of health resources and will supply the evidence to support why decisions are made.”

She added that the Authority’s economic guidelines showed how to estimate the cost-effectiveness of treatments, including the relative cost-effectiveness of alternatives where appropriate. In particular, the guidelines can be used to identify therapies that are worth providing and those that are not.

“The guidelines outline the best methods for conducting economic assessments,” added Dr Ryan.

“They provide the people within the publicly funded health and social care system who have to make these hard decisions with the information they need to make the best possible decision. This is to ensure that the resources available can be used in the most beneficial, effective and efficient manner to improve, promote and protect the health and welfare of the public.”