31 May Technologies for COVID-19: What are the key challenges for HTA agencies?
On May 24th, 2021, representatives from 11 global HTA agencies took part in a roundtable workshop organised by HTx partners led by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). The workshop focused on the challenges HTA agencies are facing in relation to assessing treatments and diagnostics for COVID-19.
In the first part of the workshop, the NICE team presented an overview of the HTx project and results from a prior survey of HTA agencies that elicited the challenges associated with assessing COVID-19 technologies. The second part was an interactive roundtable conversation, where HTA representatives discussed the most important challenges and considered how they may change over time during an evolving pandemic situation. Participants also shared strategies for overcoming the challenges and reflected on the role of HTA during a pandemic response. A report of the survey and workshop findings will be available in due course.
The workshop was conducted as part of a pilot of the Guidance for the Innovation of HTA Methods (IHTAM) Framework, developed as part of HTx Work Package 1. The findings will now inform further work to develop best-practice guidance for assessing COVID-19 technologies, which will be tested at a ‘policy sandbox’ event later in the year.