An exploratory review of evaluations of health technology assessment agencies

The authors of this study collected and reviewed the external evaluations conducted of members of the International Network of Agencies for Technology Assessment (INAHTA) between the years 1994 to 2004. [...] The methodological, time and resourcing challenges of identifying the improvement in patient outcomes or the health of the population in undertaking such an evaluation are noted and, given the challenges, the authors opt to focus their evaluation on process rather than outcomes. [...] The internal sponsor, in the case of HTA agencies, would be the agency itself or the organization in which the HTA agency resides. [...] Because of the interest in the sustainability of HTA agencies as an underlying query for this review, the reviewers documented the extent to which evaluations addressed the relationship between the HTA agency and the broader system level represented by the technology diffusion cycle (see Figure 3). [...] Various authors providing a retrospective on the dissolution of this agency suggested the agency s demise related more to the particular agenda of the governing party than to the success or failure of the organization.19,20.