Ethics domains in full health technology assessment reports: an attempt to begin mapping the field

• Published in: International journal of technology assessment in health care Vol. 41; no. 1; p. e22
• Main Authors: Kahrass, Hannes, Schnarr, Antje, Faggion, Clovis Mariano, Mertz, Marcel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 08.04.2025
• Subjects: Bioethics; Credibility; Ethical standards; Ethics; Health care policy; Health insurance; Health technology assessment; Humans; Mapping; Method; Technology assessment; Technology Assessment, Biomedical - ethics; Technology Assessment, Biomedical - organization & administration; Norway; Ethics; Meta-research; ELSO; Health Technology Assessment
• ISSN: 0266-4623; 1471-6348; 1471-6348
• DOI: 10.1017/S026646232400480X

Health technology assessment (HTA) reports are written for healthcare decision makers, particularly in relation to reimbursement/pricing, and are intended to assess clinical effectiveness, safety, and cost. Four additional domains are further considered in what is called a "full HTA": ethical, legal, social, and organizational aspects. The ethical aspects have long been the subject of debate regarding how they should be processed. It would be important if the following questions could be answered: Who publishes full HTA reports and how? Which methods are used in the ethics domain? What kind of results do they produce? However, such a "mapping of the field" turns out to be difficult. Despite the existence of international HTA registers, we were not able to compile a comprehensive sample of full HTA reports. Therefore, the aim of our study was rather to explore a) substantially: Which information can be expected to be (easily) found, which can only be obtained with considerable effort, and which remain (for the time being) in the dark? And b) methodologically: Is it possible to do meaningful meta-research in this field? In the attempt to explore the possibilities of meta-research, we were able to track down and analyze thirty-nine full HTA reports from six countries. While not representative of the whole field, this analysis shows the possibilities and challenges to meta-research, but nonetheless also provides some substantial insight into the characteristics of such reports, with a particular focus on the methods used to process ethical aspects.