Highlights HTAi 2015: a new perspective from the hospital's point of view

The 12th annual meeting of the Health Technology Assessment International (HTAi) was held on 15th to June 17th, 2015 in Oslo, Norway. One of the event’s highlights was the presentation of Matthew D. Mitchell, MD, one of the leaders ahead of the Center for Evidence-based Practice (CEP) of the University of Pennsylvania, with the topic “Health technology assessment in the hospital: new opportunities to improve the quality and safety of care”.
Dr. Mitchell emphasizes the importance of implementing evidence-based practices to promote quality, safety and value to the care. The use of systematic reviews of the medical literature, incentives for the implementation of translational medicine and the promotion of educational process to the hospital’s clinical staff enable the improvement of decisions in clinical practice, institutional policies, incorporation of technology and development of protocols and guidelines.

This approach is made possible and amplified by the presence of the clinical liaisons, represented by doctors and nurses responsible for acting as a link between the clinical staff in prioritizing the hospital interest issues, coupled with the dissemination and implementation of practices, like “evangelists” of the practice based on evidence and health technologies assessment (HTA) to the members of the institution.
The University of Pennsylvania considered as a priority in their assessments outcomes such as mortality reduction, elimination of errors, patient satisfaction, improvement in quality scores, cost control and keep the unit updated with the new technologies.
Despite the importance of including doctors and nurses as an integral tool in the process of maximizing the clinical impact of HTA, their articulation in support of evidence-based practices presents some challenges when it comes to the selection of themes to be evaluated, creating reports that are relevant to users, rapid response and implementation, which requires time and resources.
Since the foundation of the CEP approximately 300 quick revisions were made, with an impressive average production 35 to 40 reports per year. Allied to a high degree of patient satisfaction it was also identified a high rate (67%) of dissemination of reports among the members of the clinical staff, promoting a lower variability in patient care.

Another important leadership in the implementation of HTA in hospitals, on the European scene, is Laura Sampietro-Colom, MD, leader of Adopting Hospital Based Health Technology Assessment (AdHopHTA), which aims to promote the adoption of high quality HTA in the hospital setting. The electronic site offers an interesting explanatory animation about what is HTA.

More information about the work developed by Dr. Mitchell can be found on the site www.uphs.upenn.edu/cep

Likewise, rich material of AdHopHTA is available on the web page www.adhophta.eu and their animation on https://youtu.be/QnmnyZ14A4w