Bringing Patient Voices into Health Technology Assessment

In a new Frontiers in Medical Technology perspective, authors Janet L. Wale and colleagues make the case that patient input would improve the health technology assessment (HTA) process for all parties. Currently, patient voices are often lacking in conversations in and around HTA, despite being the target of health technologies. Incorporating patient preferences and recommendations into the process has, the authors argue, already expanded the perspectives of decision-makers, in some cases.

According to the paper, “An example from ICER shows where a new treatment for sight loss (blindness) failed to achieve traditional measures of cost-effectiveness. Patients and their families conveyed how extensive the benefits of better sight (even partial) are for the entire family through improvements in school, work, and social functioning. ICER developed an alternative economic model incorporating these benefits that was accepted as a reasonable long-term value (HTAi 2021 presentation, personal communication).”

Click here to read the open-access study.

(Source: Frontiers in Medical Technology, January 25^th, 2022)