A Comparative Analysis of Patient Participation in Health Technology Assessment Systems Worldwide: Trends and Practices

Marcos Puebla^1*Luis Korrodi¹Luca Trentin²Annabel De Maria^1*Nerea Blanqué^1*

• ¹Alira Health SLU, Barcelona, Spain
• ²Alira Health Srl, Milan, Italy

Over the last decades, Health Technology Assessment (HTA) has become pivotal in guiding decision-making concerning the inclusion of new health technologies in health systems worldwide. As HTA continues to evolve, the importance of patient participation to achieve a more informed, transparent, and legitimate decision-making process has gained increased recognition. In this study, we conducted a comparison and ranking of 56 HTA systems across five regions based on the levels of patient participation throughout the HTA process, which was measured by applying a standardized scoring framework to the publicly available information on each system. While prior research has explored patient participation in HTA, to our knowledge, the present study is the first attempt to quantify the level of participation on a wider scale to enable comparisons across a large sample of HTA systems. The findings reveal that, while many HTA systems include patient participation, the level of involvement shows substantial variation across systems and tends to be comparatively modest. Some systems demonstrate active engagement throughout the process, while others show limited participation. In conclusion, our work offers policymakers, healthcare professionals, patients, and researchers a comprehensive understanding of current patient participation approaches, fostering opportunities for enhancing patient involvement in HTA.