A Bayesian framework for assessing new surgical health technologies

Abstract

The primary purpose of health technology assessment (HTA) is to provide information that can facilitate decision-making regarding alternative health technologies. No single randomised controlled trial can hope to provide definitive conclusions about all of the endpoints of interest to decision-makers when considering a new intervention for adoption by the clinical community and/or reimbursement by health care decision-makers. Therefore, HTA involves the synthesis and incorporation of all available evidence regarding the intervention. This chapter presents a Bayesian framework for managing the iterative process of HTA over the lifetime of the technology from the time when the technology is first identified for use in patients, to ensure consistency between reimbursement decisions and decisions regarding the need for and direction of further research. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010.