HEDS is part of the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at the University of Sheffield. We undertake research, teaching, training and consultancy on all aspects of health related decision science, with a particular emphasis on health economics, HTA and evidence synthesis.

Thursday 30 November 2017

We ask again…are EUNetHTA Rapid Assessments fit for purpose?

In November, we questioned whether EUNetHTA’s Rapid Assessments gave sufficient emphasis to the analysis of ethical, legal and patient perspectives.  We highlighted a recent assessment of Regorafenib in which Ethics were covered by two words “not applicable” and Patient Involvement consisted of three sentences.

Well, they since have improved the quality of their Patient Involvement work in the recent assessment of Midostaurin with standard chemotherapy in FLT3-positive acute myeloid leukemia.  The full Chapter – now, four sentences, is shown below:

“After consultation with patient organisations, a Romanian patient with AML was identified. An open interview, based on the HTAi questionnaire template, was conducted with this patient. The experiences of the patient informed to some extend the outcomes taken into consideration for this joint assessment. The process for patient involvement in joint assessment REA is still under development.”

Image: What ? by wonderferret