Syreon Research Institute, Budapest, Hungary.
Patient advocate, Budapest, Hungary.
Front Public Health. 2023 Jul 3;11:1176200. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1176200. eCollection 2023.
Meaningful patient involvement in health technology assessment (HTA) is essential in ensuring that the interests of the affected patient population, their families, and the general public are accurately reflected in coverage and reimbursement decisions. Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries are generally at less advanced stages of implementing HTA, which is particularly true for patient involvement activities. As part of the Horizon2020 HTx project, this research aimed to form recommendations for critical barriers to patient involvement in HTA in CEE countries.
Built on previous research findings on potential barriers, a prioritisation survey was conducted online with CEE stakeholders. Recommendations for prioritised barriers were formed through a face-to-face workshop by CEE stakeholders and HTx experts.
A total of 105 stakeholders from 13 CEE countries completed the prioritisation survey and identified 12 of the 22 potential barriers as highly important. The workshop had 36 participants representing 9 CEE countries, and 5 Western European countries coming together to discuss solutions in order to form recommendations based on best practices, real-life experience, and transferability aspects. Stakeholder groups involved in both phases included HTA organisation representatives, payers, patients, caregivers, patient organisation representatives, patient experts, health care providers, academic and non-academic researchers, health care consultants and health technology manufacturers/providers. As a result, 12 recommendations were formed specified to the CEE region's context, but potentially useful for a broader geographic audience.
In this paper, we present 12 recommendations for meaningful, systematic, and sustainable patient involvement in HTA in CEE countries. Our hope is that engaging more than a hundred CEE stakeholders in the study helped to spread awareness of the importance and potential of patient involvement and that the resulting recommendations provide tangible steps for the way forward. Future studies shall focus on country-specific case studies of the implemented recommendations.
在确保受影响患者群体、其家属和公众的利益在覆盖范围和报销决策中得到准确反映方面，让患者有意义地参与卫生技术评估（HTA）至关重要。中东欧（CEE）国家在实施 HTA 方面普遍处于较落后的阶段，患者参与活动更是如此。作为 Horizon2020 HTx 项目的一部分，本研究旨在为 CEE 国家患者参与 HTA 的关键障碍提出建议。
在先前关于潜在障碍的研究结果的基础上，与 CEE 利益相关者进行了在线优先排序调查。通过 CEE 利益相关者和 HTx 专家的面对面研讨会，形成了对优先障碍的建议。
共有来自 13 个 CEE 国家的 105 名利益相关者完成了优先排序调查，并确定了 22 个潜在障碍中的 12 个为高度重要。研讨会有 36 名参与者，代表 9 个 CEE 国家，以及 5 个来自西欧的国家，共同讨论解决方案，以便根据最佳实践、实际经验和可转移性方面形成建议。参与两个阶段的利益相关者群体包括 HTA 组织代表、支付方、患者、护理人员、患者组织代表、患者专家、医疗保健提供者、学术和非学术研究人员、医疗保健顾问和医疗技术制造商/供应商。因此，形成了 12 项针对 CEE 地区背景的建议，但对更广泛的地理受众可能也有用。
在本文中，我们为 CEE 国家有意义、系统和可持续地让患者参与 HTA 提出了 12 项建议。我们希望，有 100 多名 CEE 利益相关者参与这项研究有助于提高人们对患者参与的重要性和潜力的认识，而由此产生的建议为前进的道路提供了切实可行的步骤。未来的研究应侧重于实施建议的特定国家案例研究。
