EUnetHTA Adaptation Glossary (beta)

Issue

Rapid reviews are a term used to group a variety of health technology assessment procedures that has to be performed in a reduced time-frame. If a usual systematic review takes one year or more for at least two full time people, these kinds of rapid reviews are delivered in 6 months or less. The purpose of the rapid reviews is to give support to relatively urgent health policy decision making.

Different types of Rapid reviews

Policy
A policy is a predefined plan of action to guide decisions and actions. The term may apply to governments, private sector organisations, groups, or individuals. The policy process includes the identification of different alternatives, programs or priorities, and choosing among them on the basis of the evidence about the impact they will have. Policies can be understood as political, management, financial, and administrative mechanisms arranged to reach explicit goals.

Health technology assessment is concerned with the evaluation of medical, organizational, economic and societal consequences of implementing health technologies or interventions within health systems. To do so, a high degree of multidisciplinary cooperation and scientific (methodological) competence is required.

Issue

Equity, together with efficiency are two of the main driving principles in health care planning and provision of care in publicly financed health care systems. The concept of equity is a complex concept, but most would agree with the definition of “equal access to equal treatment for people with similar level of need”. One of the main objectives of the policy makers is to reach the adequate balance between equity and efficiency.

Relevance and dimensions of equity in HTA

Equity has a relevant role in different stages of HTA:

In a medical context it indicates that the therapeutic effect for a given intervention (e.g. intake of a medicine, an operation, or a public health measure) is acceptable. Efficacy in this context refers to a consensus that it is at least as good as other available interventions to which it will have ideally been compared to in a clinical trial. For example, an efficacious vaccine has the ability to prevent or cure a specific illness in an acceptable proportion of exposed individuals.

Essential common parts in the reports of HTA, independently of the topic about which it is treated.

Description of the concept

The concept of affordability is related to the capacity of being affordable. Something is affordable when one can manage it in terms of time, money or resources.
There is another context in which this term is used, which is related to the capacity to provide something.
In HTA it should be a criteria to take into account when one has to make decisions about inclusión or exclusion of some intervention, treatment or diagnostic procedure, by the means of being able to cope within the budget and resources of each country.