CADTH Partners With International Health Technology Assessment Bodies to Boost Collaboration on Shared Challenges

Six health technology assessment (HTA) bodies from 3 continents will join forces to collaborate on a range of topics to benefit people accessing health care around the world.

The signatories to the arrangement, who will continue to remain independent of one another, are:

• National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)

• Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH)
• Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care
• Healthcare Improvement Scotland
• Health Technology Wales
• All Wales Therapeutics and Toxicology Centre.

This agreement will allow the partners to work together on shared priorities to identify solutions to some of the common challenges they face. Five initial priority areas have been agreed upon:

1. COVID-19
   Partners will share information about how they are working with regulators, prioritizing topics, managing medicines with no marketing authorization, and planning for HTAs, as well as their approaches to economic modelling.
2. Future-Proofing of HTA Systems
   Partners will exchange ideas on how HTA processes could better anticipate technological and methodological challenges, and will work together on scientific and methodological topics to address these challenges.
3. Collaborating With Regulators
   Partners will explore implementing joint approaches to engaging with the regulatory agencies in the UK, Canada, and Australia to identify and advance opportunities to improve HTA and regulatory collaboration.
4. Work-Sharing and Efficiency Gains
   Partners will explore the feasibility of recognizing or using each other’s HTA information and explore running a pilot for a joint clinical assessment.
5. Digital and Artificial Intelligence
   Partners will share information about developments in the evaluation of digital health technologies, including technologies that involve artificial intelligence.

Working groups, aligned to the priority areas, will meet quarterly to review progress and discuss activities in their area. An annual meeting of all partner organizations will be held to review all activities and, where appropriate, realign the developing areas of collaboration.

The partnership could be expanded to include other HTA bodies in the future, subject to the agreement of existing members, with the signed agreement reviewed after 2 years.

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“When CADTH launched our strategic plan in April 2022, we committed to accelerating our work with global partners to advance the science of HTA. This partnership is an excellent example of our commitment to collaboration and to leveraging our role as the hub of HTA in Canada.”

Suzanne McGurn, President and CEO, CADTH