EUnetHTA Adaptation Glossary (beta)

Generalisability refers to whether the results of an HTA report can be extrapolated to other settings. This is sometimes referred to as ‘external validity’.
For the WP5 toolkit, transferability is about the ability to apply information and/or data from one report into a report for the user’s target setting. Transferability is dependent on context specificity.

Generalisable information/data can be readily adopted. However, the more context specific, the less likely that data/information in one report can be adopted into another i.e. transferred without making any changes or additions.

For the WP5 toolkit, transferability is about the ability to apply information from one report into a user’s target setting. Each domain of the WP5 toolkit includes transferability questions and links to relevant resources; the purpose being to help the user decide whether they can adopt, need to adapt or disregard specific pieces of information when applying these to their target setting.

The EUnetHTA adaptation toolkit has been developed to aid HTA agencies in the adaptation of HTA reports that are a synthesis of evidence. It contains checklists of questions and resources to enable the assessment of a report’s relevance, reliability and transferability.

Currently, the toolkit is in the form of a word document. It will be developed into something more interactive, in the context of the planned web-based clearing house.

The interconnection between the terms:

In the context of adapting HTA reports, a reliable report is one that a potential user can trust and rely on: they can trust that what it says is true. If so, they may be adopted or considered for adaptation for another setting. One way of assessing reliability in a standardized way is through the use of quality checklists, such as those that are included in the EUnetHTA Toolkit.

Clinical question. In the field of evidence based healthcare, the patient-intervention-comparison-outcome (PICO) formula is widely used to construct a clinical question.

P - patient, population of patients, problem
I - intervention (e.g. a therapy, test)
C - comparator or control (e.g. another therapy, placebo)
O - outcome

The interconnection of the given terms:

Guidance is the concept involved when a HTA reports guides the new user through a certain field. We feel that this term is rather far from the core of HTA as HTA reports should either empower the user to make his own decision or to offer the user an option that the user can either adopt or modify. Guidance might refer to HTA reports as a science base but due to the other terms mentioned we assume that this is not meant here.

Generalisability refers to whether the results of an HTA report can be extrapolated to other settings. This is sometimes referred to as ‘external validity’.
For the WP5 toolkit, transferability is about the ability to apply information and/or data from one report into a report for the user’s target setting. Transferability is dependent on context specificity.

Generalisable information/data can be readily adopted. However, the more context specific, the less likely that data/information in one report can be adopted into another i.e. transferred without making any changes or additions.

The idea of equity in health services must be seen in close relation to the principles of justice, fairness and non-discrimination. Equity can refer to both the level of health care provide and the access to health care. Equity therefore can be outcome or “opportunity” oriented. Equity also requires health literacy as health care users must be empowered to use health care system. From an individual point of view, equity describes what the individual reasonably can expect from a solitary health care system.

Efficacy is the extent to which a specific intervention, programme or service produces a beneficial result under ideal conditions. The definition of ideal conditions is based on the results of a randomized controlled trial.

Effectiveness is the extent to which a specific intervention, programme or service, when developed in the field, does what it is intended to do for a defined population.