Recommendations for patient involvement in health technology assessment in Central and Eastern European countries

Jakab, Ivett (author), Hren, Rok (author)

Introduction: Meaningful patient involvement in health technology assessment (HTA) is essential in ensuring that the interests of the affected patient population, their families, and the general public are accurately reflected in coverage and reimbursement decisions. Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries are generally at less advanced stages of implementing HTA, which is particularly true for patient involvement activities. As part of the Horizon2020 HTx project, this research aimed to form recommendations for critical barriers to patient involvement in HTA in CEE countries. Methods: Built on previous research findings on potential barriers, a prioritisation survey was conducted online with CEE stakeholders. Recommendations for prioritised barriers were formed through a face-to-face workshop by CEE stakeholders and HTx experts. Results: A total of 105 stakeholders from 13 CEE countries completed the prioritisation survey and identified 12 of the 22 potential barriers as highly important. The workshop had 36 participants representing 9 CEE countries, and 5 Western European countries coming together to discuss solutions in order to form recommendations based on best practices, real-life experience, and transferability aspects. Stakeholder groups involved in both phases included HTA organisation representatives, payers, patients, caregivers, patient organisation representatives, patient experts, health care providers, academic and non-academic researchers, health care consultants and health technology manufacturers/providers. As a result, 12 recommendations were formed specified to the CEE region’s context, but potentially useful for a broader geographic audience. Conclusion: In this paper, we present 12 recommendations for meaningful, systematic, and sustainable patient involvement in HTA in CEE countries. Our hope is that engaging more than a hundred CEE stakeholders in the study helped to spread awareness of the importance and potential of patient involvement and that the resulting recommendations provide tangible steps for the way forward. Future studies shall focus on country-specific case studies of the implemented recommendations.

• Language: English
• Keywords: health technology assessment, Europe, patient involvement
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FMF - Faculty of Mathematics and Physics
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 03.07.2023
• Year: 2023
• Number of pages: 13 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 11, art. no. 1176200
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-147388
• UDC: 614
• ISSN on article: 2296-2565
• DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1176200
• COBISS.SI-ID: 157437699
• Publication date in RUL: 04.07.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Frontiers in public health
• Shortened title: Front. public health
• Publisher: Frontiers Media
• ISSN: 2296-2565
• COBISS.SI-ID: 523096857

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: vrednotenje zdravstvenih tehnologij, Evropa, vključevanje pacientov

Projects

• Funder: EC - European Commission
• Funding programme: European Commission
• Project number: 825162
• Name: Next Generation Health Technology Assessment to support patient-centred, societally oriented, real-time decision-making on access and reimbursement for health technologies throughout Europe
• Acronym: HTx