Lectures / 13/04/2009 7:30 pm

Enough is never enough. Or could it be the case that more medicine is actually too much? Health Technology Assessment as a scientific discipline.

Health Technology Assessment (HTA) refers to the evaluation of health services, which is steadily gaining in importance in view of ballooning budgets in the health sector. HTA is a method of making knowledge about both innovative and long established medical technologies available in a manner that is systematic, transparent and relevant for political decisions.
As the uncontrolled, rapid spread and unjustifiably frequent application of certain medical interventions is a major factor contributing to the rising costs in the health sector, HTA aims to monitor medical interventions for their actual benefits and for their effective and appropriate application. Quality assurance and an evaluation in terms of clinical and organisational consequences are significant factors of HTA.
HTA is deployed as an instrument for analysis and for the definition of political guidelines, which helps ensure a fair distribution of resouorces. This makes it a significant factor in keeping a solidary health system functional. A great deal of attention is directed towards the identification of truly innovative inventions and discoveries, and it is above all the funding agencies that rely on HTA to identify proven new technologies for inclusion in the list of services they are prepared to cover. Particularly a public health service that is financed by the taxpayer needs to pay attention to the actual benefit patients derive from specific treatments.