Grant: Cat Gr.: Policy Research for HST - IHSPR - Health Care Policy Res./Systems Res.

Health technology assessment (HTA) is a tool used to compile evidence on the clinical and economic effectiveness of various treatments and services in the health care system. While HTA has been around for some time, and the expertise to conduct HTA exists in most Provinces, there has been a clear gap around implementation of HTA evidence. That is, HTA findings are often not well integrated into decision making processes within governments, health authorities and other health service delivery organizations such as hospitals. This gap would suggest that we are not getting an optimal return on our investment. Partnering with the BC Ministry of Health and the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH), this project seeks to better understand how HTA evidence can be more fully integrated with health system decision making processes. Specifically, we aim to (1) survey HTA producers in Canada and determine the structures that are in place to enable uptake of HTA evidence, (2) identify factors that facilitate and hinder greater integration of HTA evidence into health system decisions, and (3) identify strategies to improve HTA decision making integration. HTAs produce evidence on all aspects of the quadruple aim including equity and have great potential to influence resource allocation decisions particularly around but not limited to integration of care. However, this potential is currently not being met. The primary outcome of the project will be 3-4 actionable policy strategies for implementation by governments and in health care organizations to fully integrate the range of evidence found in HTA reports. As such, we anticipate high level of interest from all health care organizations across Canada that commission HTAs and/ or seek out evidence to inform decision making.