College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia 5042, Australia.
School of Health and Society, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales 2522, Australia.
Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 2021 Jan 18;37:e22. doi: 10.1017/S0266462320002238.
Over the past few years, there has been an increasing recognition of the value of public involvement in health technology assessment (HTA) to ensure the legitimacy and fairness of public funding decisions [Street J, Stafinski T, Lopes E, Menon D. Defining the role of the public in Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and HTA-informed decision-making processes. Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 2020;36:87-95]. However, important challenges remain, in particular, how to reorient HTA to reflect public priorities. In a recent international survey of thirty HTA agencies conducted by the International Network of Agencies for HTA (INAHTA), public engagement in HTA was listed as one of the "Top 10" challenges for HTA agencies [O'Rourke B, Werko SS, Merlin T, Huang LY, Schuller T. The "Top 10" challenges for health technology assessment: INAHTA viewpoint. Int J Technol Assess. 2020;36:1-4].Historically, Australia has been at the forefront of the application of HTA for assessing the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of new health technologies to inform public funding decisions. However, current HTA processes in Australia lack meaningful public inputs. Using Australia as an example, we describe this important limitation and discuss the potential impact of this gap on the health system and future directions.
在过去的几年中，人们越来越认识到公众参与健康技术评估（HTA）的价值，以确保公共资金决策的合法性和公正性[Street J, Stafinski T, Lopes E, Menon D. 定义公众在健康技术评估（HTA）和 HTA 决策过程中的作用。国际卫生技术评估杂志. 2020;36:87-95]。然而，仍然存在重要的挑战，特别是如何重新调整 HTA 以反映公众的优先事项。在最近由国际卫生技术评估机构网络（INAHTA）对三十家 HTA 机构进行的国际调查中，公众参与 HTA 被列为 HTA 机构的“十大”挑战之一[O'Rourke B, Werko SS, Merlin T, Huang LY, Schuller T. 健康技术评估的“十大”挑战：INAHTA 观点。国际卫生技术评估杂志. 2020;36:1-4]。
澳大利亚在应用 HTA 评估新的卫生技术的有效性和成本效益以告知公共资金决策方面一直处于领先地位。然而，澳大利亚目前的 HTA 流程缺乏有意义的公众投入。我们以澳大利亚为例，描述了这一重要的局限性，并讨论了这一差距对卫生系统和未来方向的潜在影响。
