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Health technology assessment in Italy
Carlo Favaretti1, Americo Cicchetti, Giovanni Guarrera
1Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Udine, Udine, Italy 33100. favaretti.carlo@aoud.sanita.fvg.it
Objectives:
The aim of this study was to review the history of health technology assessment (HTA) in Italy.
Methods:
Founded in 1978, the Italian National Health Service (NHS) has been strongly regionalized mainly after a constitutional reform, which started a devolution process. HTA started in the 1980s at the National Institute of Health and in a few University Hospitals, with a focus on big ticket technology: that process was driven by clinical engineers.
Results:
In recent years, HTA is becoming an important tool for decision-making processes at central, regional, and local levels. In particular, the National Agency for Regional Health Services (AGENAS) and five regions (of twenty-one) are strongly committed to develop HTA initiatives connected with the planning process.
Conclusions:
At the local level, the hospital-based HTA activity is probably the most important peculiarity of the country and the real driver of the HTA movement.
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