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Health technology assessment applied to emergency preparedness: a new perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 July 2021

Alessandro Miglietta*
Affiliation:
European Public Health Association, Infectious Diseases Control Section, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Chiara de Waure
Affiliation:
European Public Health Association, Health Technology Assessment Section, Utrecht, The Netherlands Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy
Catherine Chronaki
Affiliation:
HL7 Europe Foundation, Brussels, Belgium
Claudia Wild
Affiliation:
HTA Austria - Austrian Institute for Health Technology Assessment GmbH, Vienna, Austria
Carlo Favaretti
Affiliation:
European Public Health Association, Health Technology Assessment Section, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Aura Timen
Affiliation:
European Public Health Association, Infectious Diseases Control Section, Utrecht, The Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands Athena Institute for Research on Innovation and Communication in Health and Life Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Michael Edelstein
Affiliation:
European Public Health Association, Infectious Diseases Control Section, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Elena Petelos
Affiliation:
European Public Health Association, Infectious Diseases Control Section, Utrecht, The Netherlands European Public Health Association, Health Technology Assessment Section, Utrecht, The Netherlands Clinic of Social and Family Medicine, Department of Social Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece Department of Health Services Research, Care and Public Health Research Institute (CAPHRI) Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
*
Author for correspondence: Alessandro Miglietta, E-mail: alessandro.miglietta@uslcentro.toscana.it

Abstract

Emergency preparedness is a continuous quality improvement process through which roles and responsibilities are defined to effectively anticipate, respond to, and recover from the impact of emergencies. This process results in documented plans that provide a backbone structure for developing the core capacities to address health threats. Nevertheless, several barriers can impair an effective preparedness planning, as it needs a 360° perspective to address each component according to the best evidence and practice. Preparedness planning shares common principles with health technology assessment (HTA) as both encompass a multidisciplinary and multistakeholder approach, follow an iterative cycle, adopt a 360° perspective on the impact of intervention measures, and conclude with decision-making support. Our “Perspective” illustrates how each HTA domain can address different component(s) of a preparedness plan that can indeed be seen as a container of multiple HTAs, which can then be used to populate the entire plan itself. This approach can allow one to overcome preparedness barriers, providing an independent, systematic, and robust tool to address the components and ensuring a comprehensive evaluation of their value in the mitigation of the impact of emergencies.

Type
Perspective
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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