CADTH Seeks Partners in Health Technology Assessment

August 15, 2006

The Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH) is seeking high- calibre research organizations to be a part of a national Partners in Health Technology Assessment (PIHTA) initiative.

This national network will establish long-term partnership arrangements (up to five-years in length) with experienced, qualified, health technology assessment (HTA) providers.

This initiative supports one of CADTH’s key strategic objectives; to develop and strengthen Canadian capacity for undertaking HTAs. It builds on previous efforts to create capacity through CADTH’s ongoing HTA Capacity Building Grants Program.

The establishment of the PIHTA network, to be comprised of two or more organizations, will take the concept of capacity building to a new level by providing sustained funding to qualified organizations. These organizations will be capable of quickly and effectively providing high quality HTAs in a responsive and cost-effective manner, enhancing CADTH’s ability to respond to the needs of health care decision makers.

Once established, the PIHTA network will offer a number of benefits, including improved responsiveness and timeliness of HTAs, the opportunity for earlier stakeholder engagement in an HTA project, greater planning capacity for HTAs, and improved quality through shared methodologies and practices.

CADTH will continue to provide opportunities for other agencies and research organizations to work with CADTH in undertaking HTAs through its topic-based request for proposal process.

For information on the qualification and selection process, please consult the Expressions of Interest document on the CADTH web site, or contact contracts@cadth.ca