Health Technology Assessment

Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is a multidisciplinary process that summaries information about the medical, social, economic, and ethical issues related to the use of a health technology or healthcare intervention, in a systematic, transparent, unbiased, robust manner. It aims to inform the formulation of safe, effective, health policies that are patient focused and seek to achieve best value. HTA forms a component of formal decision-making processes relating to health technology reimbursement and market access in multiple jurisdictions internationally.

Health economic evaluation is a set of economic tools that form part of the multidisciplinary HTA process, and which are concerned with the generation of evidence on value for money or cost effectiveness, which is useful for informing decision-makers on the efficient allocation of scarce healthcare resources within budget constrained health systems. The set of tools include cost utility analysis, cost effectiveness analysis, cost benefit analysis, cost minimisation analysis, cost consequence analysis, and budget impact analysis. These tools may be employed using data collected via clinical trials, which may or may not be supplemented via decision analytic modelling, which are populated using data sourced, extracted and synthesised from external sources using evidence synthesis methodologies.

At the Institute for Clinical Trials, the health economic evaluation team, which are based at the Health Economics and Policy Analysis Centre (HEPAC), provide a range of expertise and support on the conduct of health economic evaluation for the purposes of generating data that can go to inform HTA, reimbursement, and market access decision-making processes.

Our Aim

The primary aim of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is to provide independent, evidence-based information to support decision-making in healthcare, ensuring that new technologies are safe, effective, and provide good value for money within a budget-constrained system.

PI & Team

Health Economics and Policy Analysis Centre

Outputs

McNestry, C., Hobbins, A., Donnellan, N., Gillespie, P., McAuliffe, F. M., O’Reilly, S. L. & Latch On Consortium, (2025), Evaluation of a Complex Intervention: The Latch On Randomized Controlled Trial of Multicomponent Breastfeeding Support for Women with a Raised Body Mass Index, Journal of Public Health, 47(1), 116–126.
Clifford, A. M., Cheung, P. S., Malley, N. O., Byrne, S., Whiston, A., Kennelly, B., Mphepo, T., Eshghimanesh, Z., Thabane, L., Louw, Q., Moss, H., Gowran, R. J., Neill, D. O., Glynn, L., Woods, C. B., Maher, C., Sheikhi, A., Salsberg, J. & Bhriain, O. N., (2024), Findings from a Pragmatic Cluster Randomised Controlled Feasibility Trial of a Music and Dance Programme for Community Dwelling Older Adults, Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, 122, 105371.
Davis, M. E., Blake, C. & O'Donoghue, G., (2024), Comparison of Time-Matched Aerobic, Resistance or Combined Exercise Training in Women Living with Obesity: The EXOFFIT Study, Obes Sci Pract, 10, e749.
Gillespie, P., Moriarty, F., Smith, S., Hobbins, A., Walsh, S., Clyne, B., Boland, F., McEnteggart, T., Flood, M., Wallace, E. & McCarthy, C., (2024), Cost Effectiveness of a GP delivered Medication Review to reduce Polypharmacy and Potentially Inappropriate prescribing in Older Patients with Multimorbidity in Irish Primary Care: The SPPiRE Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial, European Journal of Health Economics.
Kiely, B., Hobbins, A., Boland, F., Clyne, B., Galvin, E.,Byers, V., Loomba, S., O’Donnell, P., Connolly, D., Shea, E., O. & Smith,S. M., (2024), An Exploratory Randomised Trial Investigating Feasibility, Potential Impact and Cost Effectiveness of Link Workers for People Living with Multimorbidity attending General Practices in Deprived Urban Communities, BMC Primary Care.
Richmond, J., Kelly, M. G., Johnston, A., Murphy, P., O'Connor, L., Gillespie, P., Hobbins, A., Alvarez-Iglesias, A. & Murphy, A. W., (2024), A Community-Based Advanced Nurse Practitioner-Led Integrated Oncology Care Model for Adults receiving Oral Anticancer Medication: A Pilot Study, Pilot and Feasibility Studies.
Conneely, M., Leahy, S., O'Connor, M., Corey, G., Gabr, A., Saleh, A., Okpaje, B., O'Shaughnessy, Í., Synnott, A., McCarthy, A., Holmes, A., Robinson, K., Ryan, L., Griffin, A., Barry, L., Trépel , D., Ryan, D. & Galvin, R., (2023), A Physiotherapy-Led Transition to Home Intervention for Older Adults Following Emergency Department Discharge: A Pilot Feasibility Randomised Controlled Trial (ED PLUS), Clinical Interventions in Aging, 18, 1769-1788.
Morrissey, E., Murphy, A., Murphy, P., O'Grady, L., Byrne, M., Casey, M., Dolan, E., Duane, S., Durand, H., Gillespie, P., Hayes, P., Hobbins, A., Hynes, L., McEvoy, J., Newell, J. & Molloy, G., (2023), Supporting GPs and People with Hypertension to Maximise Medication Use to Control Blood Pressure: Protocol for a Pilot Cluster RCT of the MIAMI Intervention, HRB Open Research, 6, 6.
Hynes, L., Murphy, A.W., Hart, N., Kirwan, C., Mulligan, S., Leathem, C., McQuillan, L., Maxwell, M., Carr, E., Walkin, S., McCarthy, C., Bradley, C., Byrne, M., Smith, S. M., Hughes, C., Corry, M., Kearney, P. M., McCarthy, G., Cupples, M., Gillespie, P., Newell, J., Glynn, L., Alvarez-Iglesias, A., Sinnott, C. (2022), The MultimorbiditY COllaborative Medication Review And DEcision Making (MyComrade) Study: A Protocol for a Cross-Border Pilot Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial, Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 8(1), 73.
Brazil, K., Scott, D., Wallace, E., Clarke, M., Fahey, T., Gillespie, P., O'Halloran, P., Cardwell, C., Carter, G., McGlade, K., & Doyle, F. (2020), Anticipatory Care Planning Intervention for Older Adults at Risk of Functional Decline: Study Protocol for a Primary Care Cluster Feasibility Randomised Trial, Trials, 21(1), 168.
Casey, B., Byrne, M., Casey, D., Gillespie, P., Hobbins, A., Lowry, M., McCarthy, E., Newell, J., Roshan, D., Sharma, S., Morrissey, E., & Dinneen, S. F. (2020), Improving Outcomes Among Young Adults with type 1 diabetes: The D1 Now Randomised Pilot Study Protocol, Diabetic Medicine, 37(9), 1590-1604.
O’Regan, A., Glynn L., Bengoechea, E., Casey, M., Clifford, A., Donnelly, A., Murphy, A., Gallagher, S., Gillespie, P., Newell, J., Harkin, M., Macken, P., Sweeney, J., Foley-Walsh, M., Quinn, G., Kwok, N., O’Sullivan, H., Balfry, G. & Woods, C., (2019), An Evaluation of an Intervention Designed to help Inactive Adults become more active with a Peer Mentoring Component: A Protocol for a Cluster Randomised Feasibility Trial of the Move for Life Programme, Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 5, 88.

Impacts

Health technology assessment (HTA) helps decision makers to determine which healthcare interventions to fund and provide nationally and internationally. In Ireland, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) provide methodological guidance on the conduct of HTA. HIQA recommend quality adjusted life years (QALYs) to measure health outcomes, and instruments including the EQ-5D-5L to capture heath preference data for generating QALYs. This research developed the EQ-5D-5L value set for HTA in Ireland. Policy makers, healthcare providers, patients, and taxpayers in Ireland are beneficiaries, as its development enables more informed and better decisions on how to extract value from limited health resources.