Pre-Conference: June 23rd-24th Conference: June 25th-27th

WORKSHOP SESSION

INAHTA/HTAi Ethics Interest Sub Group: Educational Session on Addressing Ethical Issues in HTA

Half Day Workshop, June 23rd, 1.30 – 5.00 p.m.

The workshop aims to introduce methods for identifying and analyzing ethical issues and different ways in which the results of ethics analysis may be communicated.

Objectives:

• Explain the importance of considering ethical isssues,

• recognize potential ethical issues, formulate research questions,

• describe methods for analyzing ethical issues,

• describe alternative ways of synthesizing and communicating results.

Introduction

Participants will be asked to share and discuss their experiences of conducting HTAs where value issues arose since a formal ethics analysis was not done; there was no framework for considering the issues.

Methods

Using examples introduce the main methods for identifying and analyzing ethical issues. Participants will be asked to formulate ethical questions for investigation and apply some of the concepts.

Communicating results

Several ways to present the results will be shown including how to assess the “quality” of ethics analysis. Using examples, to show the benefits and challenges with summarizing and communicating results.

 

Using online collaborative tools in Health Technology Assessments

Half Day Workshop, June 23rd, 1.30 – 5.00 p.m.

Objectives:

To inform participants of the online tools available to manage the systematic review (SR) process involved in HTAs; and to promote application of these tools with regards to planning, coordinating, and conducting such research online versus using the traditional paper-based approach.

Description:

This session will cover the panorama of tools (commercially and non-commercially available) that can be incorporated throughout the HTA process, and the value this brings. The following internet-based SR software will be compared and contrasted: Abstrakr, DistillerSR, EROS, EPPI-Reviewer, RevBase, and Sumari.

Further, participants will be divided into groups where they will receive hands on experience screening, extracting, and generating data reports and tables using one of the available internet-based technologies (DistillerSR). This will be followed by a general discussion of the benefits and/or drawbacks to using an online approach.

We will also discuss common meta-analysis programs; real-time exchange tools; virtual learning environments; and document sharing tools.

 

The identification and review of evidence to inform cost effectiveness models

Half Day Workshop, June 23rd, 1.30 – 5.00 p.m.

Objectives:

The workshop will have three objectives:

1. Explore methods used in model structuring including the identification and specification of relevant parameters within the model.

2. Explore appropriate methods for the systematic identification of evidence to inform models including relevant sources and types of searching.

3. Explore appropriate methods for the reviewing of evidence to inform models including rapid review methods and the reviewing of non-standard sources of evidence.

Methods:

The workshop will consist of three sessions, each consisting of a half hour presentation to illustrate the issues and a half hour structured small group discussion working through a set of related questions.

Sessions:

1. Practical conceptual modelling methods

2. Identification of evidence to inform models

3. Reviewing of evidence to inform models

The workshop will be delivered by researchers experienced in health technology assessment in the UK including a cost effectiveness modeller, information specialist and systematic reviewer.

 

(The death of RCTs) Welcome to a new world of data! Finding your way across evidence to increase patient performances

Half Day Workshop, June 23rd, 1.30 – 5.00 p.m.

HTA is a tool to support efficient healthcare decision-making, aiming at realizing good patient performances whilst ensuring value-for-money for the system and encouraging continued innovation. In a world of evolving science toward increasingly targeted medicines, how can technology developers and assessors ensure that the performance of the individual patient rather than the average is measured and cascaded into medical practice? The session will explore how collecting evidence along medicines’ life-cycle can support this new paradigm and increased efficiency of healthcare systems

 

DIABETES: Understanding the ecosystem of the patient with diabetes as the basis for better integrated care solutions

Half Day Workshop, June 23rd, 1.30 – 5.00 p.m.

Improving the management of diabetes is vital for improving the lives of affected patients and for reducing the burden that this disease places on resource-strained healthcare delivery systems. The majority of healthcare costs associated with diabetes derive from the management of diabetic complications, particularly when these require treatment in-hospital. This aspect of diabetes care is expected to become even more apparent as the global diabetes pandemic progresses. The concept of integrated solutions including novel disease monitoring device technology will be shared.

Moderator: Rafael Rotaeche del Campo.

1- The perception and need of the patient with diabetes Ed Fisher

What are the main concern that patients report from their  treatment&care  ? What are they expecting from their physicians? what they perceive about the progress of their condition? What are the key levers, usefull to improve behaviors & treatment?

2- The patient ecosystem and its linkage with the quality of care  Victor Villagra

What are the influences of socioeconomics, genetics, environment, attitudes? How to integrate the co-morbidity component in en evidence-based emdical approach? What expected outcomes could be anticipated on quality and cost of care? 

3- Impact of new technologies on the integrated care in disabetes: (possibly B Charbonnel, TBC due to new french transparency)

What are the evidences on cost effectiveness of integrated solutions in diabetes? Exemple: beta-test of an integrated solutions telemedicine model for T1D patients in the french system

4- What role for the industry? , T.Salimi

An exemple of ecosystem based integrated care  will be presented.

The discussion will then be opened by the moderator on the diabetes specific features, the exemple presented in the US context of Accountable Care Organization and the role of industry.

 

HTA 102 Introduction to Hospital Based Health Technology Assessment

Half Day Workshop, June 23th, 1.30 – 5.00 p.m.

The objectives of the course are twofold: 1. to identify the main features of health care organization’s management; 2. to provide participants with the a general overview of the application of HTA methods and instruments in an health care organizations context. The course gives a particular emphasis on: a) planning, evaluation and control activities of the technology innovation process in the hospital context and b) health technologies needs assessment, biomedical technologies investment plan and medical devices assessment.

At the end of the course students will be able: 1) to understand the main concepts of health care management; 2) to understand the main concepts of the Hospital Based HTA ; 3) to understand how to implement and run an HTA model in their own context.

Clinicians, academia, HTA Hospital Based Agencies, Policy Makers

Session 1 Basics of health care management

• define management
• identify the basic functions of manager and phases of management

Session 2 Health care management tools

• Identify management cycle
• Strategic planning, organizational design in health care organization
• Analyze specific aspects of hospital operation management

Session 3 Management of health care organization and industry relation

• Technological innovation and cost
• Innovation process in health care
• Industry and HCOs relation
• Managing technological innovation in HCO

Session 4 HTA and hospital management: the role of administrator and Clinicians

• Technology planning: the role of HTA and interaction with clinicians

Session 5 Case study of :

• HTA_Centrum, Sahlgrenska University Hospital
• HTA Unit , University Hospital “A. Gemelli” Rome, Italy

Session 6 Exercise and teamwork

• Objective of the exercise is to produce and discuss information useful to hospital management to decide for priorities in technologies investment.

 

EUnetHTA tools for collaborative HTA production

Full Day Workshop, June 24th, 9.00 – 5.00 p.m.

Objective:

To increase the participants’ knowledge of EUnetHTA tools and gather perceptions about their functionality in collaborative HTA projects.

Description:

There will be an introduction providing background and terminology for understanding EUnetHTA’s collaborative HTA production. Afterwards, each tool will be presented with emphasis on their inter-related functionalities. There will be hands-on training sessions with computers to allow participants to test tools. Finally, speakers will discuss solutions for their further development, taking into account participants’ feedback. Participants who bring their own laptops could practice individually with the tools.

Agenda:

• Collaborative HTA production in EUnetHTA.

• Planned and Ongoing Projects (POP) database.

• HTA Core Model.

• Rapid model for assessment of relative effectiveness of pharmaceuticals.

• HTA Core Model Online.

• The EUnetHTA Information Management System.

• Adaptation Toolkit.

• The EVIDENT database (Evidence Database on New Technologies).

• Closing panel.

 

Patient and Citizen Involvement in HTA- Taking the Next Steps to Patient-Centred HTA

Full Day Workshop, June 24th, 9.00 – 5.00 p.m.

This workshop provides an opportunity to expand Working Group (WG) participation to others interested in patient/citizen involvement.  Karen Facey will summarise PCISG development, highlighting successes, challenges and opportunities, followed by presentations from WG Chairs on early achievements and challenges.

Janet Wale will present the Patient Involvement and Education WG work, including a framework for public involvement potentially relevant across the Interest Sub-Group.

Sophie Werko will present the Patient Issues: Methods and Impact WG plans and collaborations with academia and INAHTA.

Jackie Street will present efforts to build the Citizen and Community Involvement WG and planned advocacy strategies to explicate the role of citizens in HTA.

The Working Groups will convene in parallel breakout sessions to develop operational plans for future work.

Durhane Wong-Rieger, incoming joint Chair, will lead a feedback session to gain consensus on future directions.  A workshop summary will be developed and shared with all HTAi members.

 

Transforming information services in a changing HTA environment

Full Day Workshop, June 24th, 9.00 - 4.00 p.m.

The IRG 2012 full-day workshop brings together information specialists and medical/health librarians from around the world who work in HTA and health/research organisations to learn about and discuss new approaches in information management.

Workshop participants will:

• Learn about rapid review methodologies and processes

• Learn about social and demographic search strategies and engage in group discussion with expert searchers

• Become familiar with some international resource sharing agreements currently operating, and participate in a discussion forum about copyright and cost containment strategies

• Discover what medical librarians in Spain are doing in regards to new services for patient-centred systems. This session will encourage participants to consider ideas for new services and discuss how to remodel existing services

 

Introduction to handling missing outcome and cost data in the economic evaluation of RCTs

Half Day Workshop, June 24^th, 9.00 – 12.30 p.m.

The course will provide solutions to the specific problems arising from missing and censored data on costs and Quality Adjusted Life Years in RCTs.

After attending this course, participants should be able to:

• Understand the problem of missing data in RCTs;

• Understand the assumptions underpinning the analysis of missing data;

• Describe simple and more complex methods for handling missing data, the assumptions underpinning each one of them, and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

• Implement methods for handling missing data, namely complete case, mean imputation, conditional imputation, multiple imputation, and inverse probability weighting.

• Perform sensitivity analysis on the assumptions underpinning the chosen method.

The course will be conducted in English. It will not be possible to offer computer-based practical sessions. Instead, sample STATA code will be presented and explained using simple examples. The approaches will be illustrated by analyses drawn from the lecturers’ experience.

 

Identification sources and process for early awareness and alert (EAA) systems

Half Day Workshop, June 24th, 9.00 – 12.30 a.m.

By the end of the workshop, attendees will:

• Know what questions to ask of funders and/or clients prior to deciding on which sources to incorporate into an EAA system.

• Understand the different categories of identification sources – primary, secondary and tertiary.

• Understand how experts, companies, collaborative networks and the internet can be used alone or in combination in the identification process.

• Know about some common difficulties or pitfalls in using different identification sources.

• Understand the need for the evaluation of identification sources.

• Know what the next steps are after the identification of emerging technologies.

The workshop will take the form of a panel of speakers with different experiences and using examples of EAA system identification processes, with the opportunity for group discussion. All participants will receive a copy of the EuroScan methods toolkit and a list of commonly used internet and other sources

 

The COMET (Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials) Initiative

Half Day Workshop, June 24th, 9.00 – 12.30 a.m.

This workshop will comprise a mixture of presentations, exercises and participant discussion. A presentation will set the scene for several key issues. Participants will be given example reviews to look at. They will work in groups to identify examples of non-standardised selection, measurement and reporting of outcomes, and to discuss problems this may cause for those attempting to synthesise evidence. Subsequent presentations will focus on existing work to design core outcome sets (COS) for clinical trials, and further group discussion of the methodological issues involved in developing COS. The importance of including key stakeholders in establishing COS, including patients, will be emphasised to ensure consideration of appropriate outcomes. The COMET Initiative will be described (http://www.comet-initiative.org/), the COMET database demonstrated and progress to date presented. The impact and implications of COS for research used to inform policy and clinical decision making will be discussed.

 

HTAi-SMDM Joint Presentation: How combining health technology assessment and decision psychology can advance personalized medicine and patient centered care

Half Day Workshop, June 24th, 9.00 – 12.30 a.m.

Objectives:

The objectives of this workshop are to bring together experts in the fields of HTA and decision psychology to address best practices and directions for future research with regard to translation of HTA methods to support personalized medicine and patient centered care.   The outcome of this workshop and subsequent planned collaborations between HTAi and SMDM will be a set of white papers to identify best practices and priorities for future research that can move this field forward.

Format of Session:

The session will include an expert panel and discussion between the panel and workshop participants.  The expert panel will include international leaders in the field of HTA and decision psychology.   Experts will present key issues relating to the use of HTA in the context of the clinical encounter, both summarizing existing literature and highlighting priorities for future research. Specific topics to be addressed will include designing HTA to ensure that it yields findings useful for informing policies and clinical decisions for personalized medicine; best practices for dissemination and knowledge transfer to support the use of HTA findings in clinical settings.  Extensive time will be allotted for participant input and interaction

 

Public health genomics and health technology assessment

Half Day Workshop, June 24th, 1.30 – 5.00 p.m.

The main objective of this workshop is to inform the audience on (HTA-relevant) results of the second phase of a Public Health Genomics European Network (PHGEN) project, PHGEN II. The first speaker, Dr. Lal, will present the theoretical framework for the project, defining ten essential public health services. He will also present a new model for translation of genome based technologies and information to clinical practice. Then the role of HTA in the process will be discussed, first by Dr. Douw, by means of a comparison of HTA frameworks as developed in Europe and the US, followed by Prof. Cassiman on criteria for the responsible introduction of screening programmes. This paves the way for a final presentation by Prof. Brand on the need for adopting the existing HTA frameworks in the era of personalised medicine. The workshop is intended to be complementry to a panel session on PHG.

 

Qualitative evidence synthesis for HTA

Half Day Workshop, June 24th, 1.30 – 5.00 p.m.

This workshop will outline an existing, evaluated approach for conducting the synthesis of qualitative evidence for an HTA. The method is “best-fit” framework synthesis. Participants will learn how to apply this method by:

1. Scoping the problem

2. Identifying relevant conceptual or theoretical models or frameworks relevant to the technology and health behaviour of interest for generating a priorithemes for analysis

3. Identifying relevant qualitative studies

4. Producing a priori themes against which to code relevant data from included studies

5. Critically appraise included studies

6. Synthesise the data and produce a new model or theory capturing patients’ views, values and preferences relating to of the technology

The workshop will involve brief presentations on each of these six stages, using evaluated examples. Participants will follow these stages by working through an exemplar case study to demonstrate the method. Participants’ work will be facilitated by the workshop team. Each stage will be discussed. The strengths and weaknesses of this method, and its relevance and applicability to qualitative evidence synthesis in HTA, will also be considered in a final plenary discussion

 

HTA 101

Half Day Workshop, June 24th, 1.30 – 5.00 p.m.

Presented by Clifford Goodman, current President of HTAi, this course offers a lively introduction to HTA for those who are new to the field, as well as for those who seek a refresher course. Developed for international participants and updated annually, this course has been a popular feature of HTA meetings for many years. Discussion of basic concepts and trends will strengthen understanding and participation in other sessions of HTAi 2012. Time is included for questions and discussion. Attendees will receive copies of the workshop materials. This course will emphasize adapting HTA approaches for all types of health technologies and across international settings. The main topics to be covered include:

1. HTA definitions, purposes, and roles in health care policy

2. Health technology: types, applications, lifecycle

3. Factors affecting technology overuse, underuse

4. Properties and impacts assessed in HTA

   • Technical performance
   • Health outcomes
   • Quality of life
   • Economic

5. HTA methods

   • Primary methods
   • Secondary/synthetic methods (systematic reviews, meta-analyses, modeling)
   • Economic analyses: CEA, QALYs, and more

6. Interpreting strength of evidence

7. Priority setting, timing of assessment, and the moving target problem

8. A framework for conducting HTA

9. Sources of evidence and expertise

   • Bibliographic databases (peer-reviewed and gray literature)
   • International networks/cooperation

10. Current HTA trends and emerging challenges

    • Emerging role of comparative effectiveness research
    • Pharmacogenomics, personalized medicine, and more

Organizers:

Platinum Sponsors:

Gold Sponsors:

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                  Enterprises:

Other Sponsors:

                  Institutions:

                  Others:

                     

Exhibitors: