Improving the implementation of innovative methods in health technology assessment practice

Participants at the SUSTAIN-HTA kick-off meeting - To make sure that the methods used to determine whether new forms of health care should be reimbursed or not, are future-proof and well-suited to the forms of health care being assessed. That is the goal of the European SUSTAIN-HTA project, in which fifteen partners, both from academia and the assessment practice, will be collaborating over the next four years. The project, led by Utrecht University, covers all kinds of healthcare but focuses on medicines and medical devices. It is made possible by a Horizon Europe grant of five million euros. Assessing drugs. Whenever a new medicine or medical device hits the market, the question arises as to whether the treatment should actually be reimbursed and subsequently used in clinical practice. Each country has its own set of protocols for this evaluation, typically conducted by health technology assessment (HTA) organizations.