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Health technology assessment (HTA): ethical aspects

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Abstract

“HTA is a multidisciplinary process that summarizes information about the medical, social, economic and ethical issues related to the use of a health technology in a systematic, transparent, unbiased, robust manner. Its aim is to inform the formulation of safe, effective, health policies that are patient focused, and seek to achieve best value” (EUnetHTA 2007). Even though the assessment of ethical aspects of a health technology is listed as one of the objectives of a HTA process, in practice, the integration of these dimensions into reports remains limited. The article is focused on four points: 1. the HTA concept; 2. the difficult HTA-ethics relationship; 3. the ethical issues in HTA; 4. the methods for integrating ethical analysis into HTA.

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Notes

  1. The EUnetHTA Project has concluded its work with a conference on “HTA’s Future in Europe” held in Paris on November 20, 2008 and it is going to begin a permanent activity, named EUnetHTA Collaboration.

  2. On this matter, A.J. Braunack-Mayer (2006) claims a distinction between ethical assessment in HTA (“it takes as its object of interest the analysis of ethical problems as they arise within the context of new technologies”) and ethical assessment of HTA (“it is concerned with studying such as the organizational structure, role relationship, value system, rituals, and functions as a system of behaviour”).

  3. This approach is adopted by the Institute of Bioethics of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome (Italy).

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Prof. M. Mäkelä and Dr. K. Lampe, editors of the HTA core model for medical and surgical interventions within the EUnetHTA Project for the permission to quote data about it. Moreover, we are very grateful to Prof. I. Autti-Rämö, Work Package (WP) 4 Lead Partner’s coordinating team, Prof. S. Saarni and Prof. B. Hofmann, authors within the WP4 for the precious suggestions and comments on the paper. Finally, we would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Bioethics, “A. Gemelli” School of Medicine, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo F. Vito, 1, 00168, Rome, Italy

    Dario Sacchini, Andrea Virdis, Pietro Refolo, Maddalena Pennacchini & Ignacio Carrasco de Paula

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  1. Dario Sacchini
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  2. Andrea Virdis
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  3. Pietro Refolo
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  4. Maddalena Pennacchini
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  5. Ignacio Carrasco de Paula
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Correspondence to Dario Sacchini.

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Sacchini, D., Virdis, A., Refolo, P. et al. Health technology assessment (HTA): ethical aspects. Med Health Care and Philos 12, 453–457 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-009-9206-y

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