What are Quality adjusted life years or QALYs? QALYs are a generic measure of health that combines mortality and morbidity. It takes years of life and then adjusts these for the quality of life experienced, using utility weights – values on a 0-1 scale, with… Read More »What are QALYs?
What is economic evaluation? HTA is used to inform decision making to help build equitable and efficient health systems, in doing so assessment takes place across dimensions including clinical and economic considerations. Using outputs, decision makers have to make policy and service decisions in an… Read More »What is economic evaluation?
What is meta-analysis? Meta-analysis is the statistical combination of results from two or more studies. For example, imagine you had three different studies for intervention X versus placebo. Meta-analysis allows you to effectively pool the data from the three studies, providing the researcher with a… Read More »What is meta-analysis?
What is systematic review? I see two parts here, the systematic bit and the review part. Review referring to the identification, gathering and use of data to address a research question and then the systematic part which refers to the way the process is conducted. The… Read More »What is systematic review?
What are HTA processes and methods? These are the decision-making processes and decision-making criteria used by different jurisdictions and their respective HTA and reimbursement authorities, to assess health technologies. These are important as they drive evidence requirements and these specifications are usually set out in… Read More »What are HTA processes and methods?
What is Health Technology Assessment or HTA? HTA has evolved considerably since the first proposals set out in 1976 from the US Office of Technology Assessment. The current definition of HTA outlines that “HTA is a multidisciplinary process that uses explicit methods to determine the… Read More »What is HTA?