HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT – IS IT THE WAY TO SEARCH FOR COST – EFFECTIVE MEDICINES IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE?

Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is a multidisciplinary process that summarizes information about medical, social, economic and ethical issues related to the use of a health technology in a systematic, transparent, unbiased, robust manner. HTA constitutes an integral part of a decision making process covering, among others, pricing and reimbursement of drugs and medical devices in Central and Eastern Europe. In this review I describe the main definitions and elements of HTA placed in a context of healthcare systems’ reforms with a special emphasis on budget control tools in the Region. I also give information on some model solutions, brief history, main limitations, challenges and conditions of further development of the domain, together with some discussion from the pharmaceutical industry’s perspective.