Environmental Scan on Health Technology Reassessment Processes

The objective of this Environmental Scan was to identify the processes at national and international health technology assessment agencies to conduct the reassessment of existing or currently funded health technologies, including single and multiple technologies, drugs, and medical devices. Process elements of interest include:

• topic selection
• conduct of research and type of methods used
• type of resources used to conduct reassessment projects.

Information retrieved came from agencies located in Canada as well as in eight other countries. Out of these nine countries, some form of established process to support health technology reassessment (HTR) was identified in four. Among these four, regular reviews of publicly funded technologies for a potential HTR are conducted in only one country. HTR-related reviews in the other three countries take place only when requested by authorities. A formal framework for HTR was not identified in the other five countries included in this Environmental Scan.