Announcing the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Working Group

Announcing the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Working Group

The R Consortium is pleased to announce a new Working Group (WG) focused on Health Technology Assessment (HTA). The HTA WG has a mission of promoting the use of R in all aspects of HTA analytics, including both clinical assessment and economic evaluation. It aims to build on the success of other R Consortium working groups in bringing together and promoting dialogue between the broadest range of stakeholders from the HTA ecosystem (industry, HTA bodies, academics and others) to identify needs and address challenges through practical tools and pilot exercises. Health Technology Assessment (HTA) helps decision-makers determine which medical technologies and treatments are effective and worth paying for. It can help ensure that the right treatments reach the right patients at the right time by assessing clinical evidence and economic evaluations to inform policy-making about reimbursement and market access.

Recent policy changes, such as the EU HTA Regulation, require pharmaceutical companies to face stricter standards and shorter deadlines for submitting evidence. At the same time, HTA authorities must review an increasing number of complex analyses under the pressure for timely evidence-based decisions. Lastly, there is pressure on academia to provide easy-to-use HTA software and tools.

Initially, the WG will focus on the following objectives.

• Foster Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing:
  • Understanding the needs of all stakeholders for HTA analytics, and where the use of R may best fit.
  • Promote the common goal of delivering HTA analytics work that meets those needs and efficiently utilizes R.
  • Become a central hub for connecting existing and new R initiatives in the HTA space, ensuring efficient and unified efforts.
• Develop and Document Best Practices:
  • Develop and disseminate best practices for using R in HTA analytics work for clinical and economic evaluation.
  • Promote transparency and reproducibility in HTA analytics work.
• Explore Pilot Studies with HTA authorities
  • Explore pilot studies to test and refine open source R-based tools and frameworks for clinical and economic evaluation.
  • Pursue collaborative efforts with HTA authorities to validate these tools, demonstrating their value in real-world HTA scenarios.

If you think any of this is exciting and would like to become involved, please leave your name and email in issue number 1 at the HTA GitHub repository.