ABSPIE Director, Dr Pecchia, invited talks at the HTAi on HTA of Medical Devices
Dr Pecchia was invited to give an invited talk on Health Technology Assessment of medical devices in a panel organized by Prof Tammy Clifford, Vice-President of the Canadian Agency of Technology Assessment (CADTH). Approaches to the assessment of medical devices differs from that for drugs, and also differs across the various phases of the technology lifecycle. This session showcased several recent initiatives that support a lifecycle approach to technology assessment, and highlight linkages to HTA.
The moderator, Tammy, provided a brief reminder of the problem: what is the technology lifecycle, why does it differ for medical devices (vs drugs), and why HTA of medical devices has fallen short. This will set the stage for the subsequent presentations.
Dr Pecchia shared relevant perspectives from the International Federation of Medical and Biomedical Engineers (IFMBE) HTA division, with a focus on how much medical devices depend from operational settings and guided a reflection on how this affects HTA.
Dr Petra Inderst-Schnell described various European HTA initiatives that focus on medical devices.
Prof Peter McCulloch provided an overview of the IDEAL framework, including its genesis, case examples, and future directions.
Dr Danica Marinac-Dabic of the US FDA, provided a glimpse into the future International Infrastructure for Medical Device Epidemiology.
Finally, Sebastian Gaiser, Senior Director medical Devices Johnson and Johnson, presented a perspective from a medical device manufacturer, commenting on the utility of the suggested approaches.