Development of archetypes for non-ranking classification and comparison of European National Health Technology Assessment systems

Introduction: European countries are increasingly utilising health technology assessment (HTA) to inform reimbursement decision-making. However, the current European HTA environment is very diverse, and projects are already underway to initiate a more efficient and aligned HTA practice within Europe. This study aims to identify a non-ranking method for classifying the diversity of European HTA agencies process and the organisational architecture of the national regulatory review to reimbursement systems. Method/results: Using a previously developed mapping methodology, this research created process maps to describe national processes for regulatory review to reimbursement for 33 European jurisdictions. These process maps enabled the creation of 2 HTA taxonomic sets. The confluence of the two taxonomic sets was subsequently cross-referenced to identify 10 HTA archetype groups. Discussion: HTA is a young, rapidly evolving field and it can be argued that optimal practices for performing HTA are yet to emerge. Therefore, a non-ranking classification approach could objectively characterise and compare the diversity observed in the current European HTA environment. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.