[Assessment of medical technology in practice]

With the establishment of a national institute for Health Technology Assessment (HTA), the interest in HTA is increasing in Denmark. The National Board of Health defines HTA as a comprehensive systematic evaluation of the assumptions for, and consequences of, the application of health technology. The focus is on four elements: the technology, the economy, the patient and the organisation. However, is this broad and comprehensive definition in agreement with the practical use of HTA? This article refers to an international comparison of 124 HTA-projects made by five national HTA-institutions. The article shows that only seventeen HTA-projects can be characterized as broad and comprehensive, focusing on all four elements. The rest are more restricted in their form. The future implication for Danish HTA initiatives might then be to include some partial interpretations in the HTA-definition, besides the broad and comprehensive one used today.