Health Technology Assessment (HTA) for ICT: development and adaptation

Description

The project investigates assumptions, approaches and methods that produce the best possible knowledge for decision making on ICTs for health (eHealth, m - health, electronic medical records, support systems). Scientific literature reviews and meta-analyses, financial modeling and randomized controlled trials have been dominant in the HTA tradition. Researchers are consequently expected to produce objective evidence of effects in controlled trials. The Health ICT field is characterized by rapid changes of technology, funding models and organizational arrangements.

The project will explore and test approaches that are based on other assumptions: formative and process-oriented approaches, for instance implementation and improvement research, to complement traditional approaches for HTA. These emerging approaches are based on assumptions about dynamics within and between the context and the intervention, and participation of users. Effects will be temporary, enacted by/in specific settings, and evidence and generalizations are obtainable to a limited extent. Scientists produce systematic knowledge of experiences in ongoing processes, which in turn are fed back into the development processes.

Goals

1. Conduct a systematic review of reviews of HTA for ICT. Analyzes will focus on recommendations of methodologies and techniques that are considered to produce the best possible knowledge for decision makers and users.
2. Identify empirical trends in Helse Nord suitable for a major empirical study of alternative approaches that can produce decision-relevant knowledge
3. Identify and establish contact with partners
4. Develop a research application to the EU with international partners and NSE as lead partner
5. Develop applications for PhD projects to produce scientific and policy relevant knowledge in areas that are in demand in Helse Nord.