Stakeholder investment
Swiss HTA Consensus does neither endorse nor require a particular institutional arrangement for the implementation of formal HTA processes in Switzerland, although it is recognized that one option might be an integrated “Swiss Institute for Technology Evaluation and Quality in Health Care”. More importantly, Swiss HTA Consensus recommends a central process established at the federal level, with assessments and appraisals being informed by stakeholders throughout the whole process. Decisions based on these HTA activities will have to be taken independently (i.e., at the federal level).
According to Swiss HTA Consensus, expertise and perspectives of stakeholders should predominantly be used at two distinct level
1. Governance and Process Development
Support to and participation in governance of formal HTAs; oversight of implementation and further process development should be provided by way of expert input (or Wissenschaftlicher Beirat of an official Institute) and by political represent-ation (e.g., Supervisory Body or Institutsrat of the Institute) of stakeholders.
Furthermore, stakeholders should be offered opportunities to participate in the selection of technologies for evaluation (cf. below, “cHTA”).
2. Technology Assessments
The actual conduct of Health Technology Assessments should be enhanced by formalized opportunities for stakeholders to provide input throughout the process, namely
- (for “rapid-HTAs” [rHTAs]) exchange of information during optional early consultations, opportunities to offer comments on Dossier Assessment Reports and Appraisal Recommendations, if and when applicable, negotiation with the ultimate decision-maker (proposed by Swiss HTA Consensus to be the BAG, or another institution at the federal level), and defined options for lodging an appeal under certain restrictive conditions;
- (for “complete-HTAs” [cHTAs]) participation in the selection process of technologies for cHTA (“assignments”), scoping of cHTAs, submission of information mandatory to be reviewed during assessment, comments on Draft Appraisals.
Stakeholder participation will be supported by full transparency of the Swiss HTA processes and evaluation criteria. Accordingly, timelines and key documents pertaining to HTAs (such as key documents of assessmentsand appraisals, and decisions including their rationales) will be made available to the public.