Purpose: This joint presentation of the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) and the Netherlands Healthcare Insurance Board (CVZ) introduces the support structures for HTA-methodology development in the country and ways to foster the uptake of research findings in policy decisions and guidelines. The policy context in which research findings should be used is described and the relation between the Insurance Board, the Health Care Efficiency Research Program and the Ministry of Health are clarified.
Method: Methodology for efficiency studies in the context of especially the Dutch high-cost medicines policy is urgently needed so that decisions on reimbursement of costs can be substantiated in a valid and reliable way. ZonMw stimulates research leading to the development or optimalisation of HTA-methodology that is used as an instrument in efficiency research on health care interventions. Subsidy is only granted in case the research leads to results or a methodology that in the end can be used by health policy makers in deciding on the reimbursement of health care interventions.
Result: In this joint presentation we focus on insurance package management, selection and prioritization of methodological topics. Results and implementation strategy of the ZonMw HTA-methodology efficiency program will be presented. Through presentation of health technology assessments of selected diseases and their treatments the methodological flaws and studies needed to optimize the assessment are described and critically evaluated. Information from HTA-methodology research for optimizing information gathering and synthesis is systematically combined with information from policy and practice. The health insurance board CVZ reflects on what the methodological findings may mean to them and how these new insights may be important to reimbursement decisions, in particular to upcoming decisions regarding coverage with evidence.
Conclusion: Contextualised recommendations for optimizing the interactive processes between research, policy and practice and the utilization of methodological assessments products nationally and internationally are described.
See more of: The 33rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making