Tackling ethical issues in health technology assessment: A proposed framework

Values are intrinsic to the use of health technology assessments (HTAs) inhealth policy, but neglecting value assumptions in HTA makes their results appear morerobust or normatively neutral than may be the case. Results of a 2003 survey by theInternational Network of Agencies for Health Technology Assessment (INAHTA) revealedthe existence of disparate methods for making values and ethical issues explicit whenconducting HTA.