Health Technology Assessment, HTA

The activities of ABA in development and marketing of commercial Pharmaceutical and Diagnostic products have been extended with wider activities in the overall Healthcare sectors. An important element has been development of Healthcare Economics procedures to demonstrate the financial benefits of new products and technologies. Active participation as an Industrial Partner in the MATCH (Multidisciplinary Assessment of Technology Centre for Healthcare) group for the last nine years has supported this health economics experience for development of methods for effective assessment of value and the economic impact of advances made for Healthcare technologies. This activity led to direction of the development work for a Suite of Economic Models now used routinely for assessment of new innovations and their acceptance into the NHS. The HTA work is underpinned by ABA as an ISO 9001:2008 (and its predecessor) approved business for the last seven years.

Click image to enlarge Diagram

Economic Evaluation Tool Suite

Early Assessment Questionnaire -
Determine reality of problem being solved & possible value.

Economic Model -
Determine clinical impact, overall value to NHS or funding body and changes in clinical practice.
Financial figure based.

MATCH Economic Model -
Individual patient value QALY & Overall Healthcare financial benefit.

Procurement Model -
Balances NHS costs against benefits & objectives for the NHS, SHA, Trust, Purchasing Manager or other national funding body.

Common Features - Assesses & Evaluates

• Innovation or Product Costs. Same data in all models
• Patient Pathway Costs - Current & New
• Financial Saving for NHS or other healthcare provider of the Innovation
• QALY Value of the Innovation
• Decision Tree process to compare Innovation impact
• Areas where data is still required

The challenges have been met by this suite of tools to achieve a rigorous analysis of costs of both product and healthcare delivery. Separation of product and patient pathway costs is essential to determine the balance of product pricing and healthcare savings. The new approach determines potential savings for the healthcare provider (such as the NHS) and achieves a sound pricing strategy for suppliers based on what the market is prepared to pay with acceptable profit margin for the supplier. ABA has widely used the basic Economic Tool for the NHS National Innovation Centre (NIC) in assessing innovation healthcare products and services for over fifty companies.

Information from use of the economic tools can help NHS purchasing groups to see the benefits that can be secured in a budget time frame in support of the new financial pressures on them.

Importantly by separating Product and Delivery costs the economic information can be turned from a total NHS picture to individual group or single facility purchasing. ABA works closely with companies to develop Sales Tools based on the full economic analysis.

The Sales Tools allow suppliers to use the local data on populations, incidence, patient treatment costs and usage of the new product to determine the specific cost benefit for that customer. The objective is to maximise the savings for the NHS and at the same time optimise the pricing and profit margins for the supplier.

Further Information see article | Specialist Areas / Technology Covered