Health technology assessment: an evidence-based medicine perspective

A challenge of health technology assessment is integrating the information from different disciplines. This talk focuses on the evidence-based medicine perspective and challenges 3 assumptions of health technology assessment: assumptions about effectiveness, assumptions about coverage by health technology assessment, and assumptions about costs being immutable. Challenging these assumptions has several implications. First is the need for better evidence on effects: both low-volume, high-cost technologies and low-cost, high-volume technologies that are ineffective drains on health care systems' resources. Second, cheap but effective technologies should be better promoted, as they can displace high-cost technologies. Finally, for effective but expensive technologies, we should work to lower the price and/or costs.