The European Commission has launched a consultation on strengthening EU cooperation on Health Technology Assessment (HTA), a specialty to measure the added value of a new health technology in comparison to existing technologies or the current standards of care. HTA is used to inform decision makers about existing new technologies, to ensure patients receive the best available treatment while keeping health budgets under control and in balance.
EFA has replied to the consultation underlining our main concern: the level of patients’ involvement is very different depending on the Members States, and we report the good example of patients’ involvement in UK. In our views, both national and EU assessments should be carried out because a join assessment interpretation is useful to reflect the patients’ needs. From a patient perspective, having the local evaluation accessible at EU level could also be a tool to improve care for EU citizens living in other countries. We stated that with the aim to build an EU health system
We have also replied to the European Commission that we would like to see more allergy and asthma patients involved in HTA, not only because it is one of our strategic objectives up to 2020, but because an equitable EU health system should ensure that patients have access to quality treatments in an equal way, without distinction between and within countries.
In a few months, the European Commission will react to our views, and we will happily share them with you.