Synergus database of health technology assessments for medical devices and IVDs (HTA Update Search) was for the first time recognized in the in-depth systematic review of HTA and market access for medical devices by one of the leading European HTA organizations - LBI-HTA.
The Ludwig-Boltzmann Institute for Health Technology Assessment (LBI-HTA) performed a rapid assessment investigating European collaboration in medical device HTA and its key challenges to increase market access. A literature research using Medline, Synergus, CRD HTA databases, as well as other databases was used to select a cohort of HTA reports of high-risk medical devices from the recent years. LBI-HTA identified five critical topics:
- Lack of robust evidence at the time of the assessment.
- Methodological challenges.
- The necessity of a harmonization of HTA requirements.
- Different effects of the decisions.
- The timing of HTAs in the life cycle of medical device products.
Further, LBI-HTA noticed a large redundancy of HTAs across and within country borders. Up to 22 reports on the same technology within 10-12 years were identified. LBI-HTA concludes that the scarce resources of the various HTA institutes in Europe should be used more efficient. To improve timely market access for medical devices, it is suggested that HTA institutes not only collaborate across borders, but also fall back on foreign HTA reports even several years later, which can only be achieved by standardizing format, method, language, etc. to avoid redundancies.
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This news was originally captured in Synergus Market Access Monitor, a market access newsletter for medical devices and in-vitro diagnostics in Europe.