CADTH Announces Partners in Health Technology Assessment (PIHTA)

April 05, 2007

The Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH) today announced the selection of McMaster University’s Network of Excellence for the Assessment of Health Technologies (NEAHT) and the University of Alberta/Capital Health Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) as its first-ever Partners in Health Technology Assessment (PIHTA).

Chosen from among a selection of high-calibre research organizations and health technology assessment (HTA) providers, these partnerships will help build capacity to carry out and apply health technology assessments across Canada.

“This endeavour supports one of CADTH’s key strategic goals of developing and strengthening Canadian capacity for undertaking HTA work. It builds on our previous efforts to create capacity through CADTH’s HTA Capacity Building Grants Program,” said Mike Gaucher, Vice-President, Health Technology Assessment at CADTH.

Each of the chosen organizations has entered into a long-term partnership arrangement with CADTH to provide high quality HTAs in a responsive and cost-effective manner. The initiative takes the concept of capacity building to a new level by providing sustained funding to qualified organizations and by enhancing CADTH’s ability to respond to the needs of health care decision makers.

With the establishment of the first PIHTA centres, CADTH anticipates a number of benefits, including improved responsiveness and timeliness of HTAs, greater planning capacity for HTAs, an enhanced ability to access HTA expertise, and improved quality through shared methodologies and practices.

For NEAHT, the partnership opens the door for the consideration of a broad range of topics for future investigation. “The challenges of health technology assessment in health care today are huge, and McMaster is already strong in this area,” said Ron Goeree, Director of the Program for Assessment of Technology in Health (PATH) at McMaster. “This new undertaking will showcase McMaster as the place that will redefine HTA in an interdisciplinary way.”

The University of Alberta/Capital Health EPC is also excited about the arrangements. “This is an important milestone for the University of Alberta/Capital Health EPC as it is another important achievement for our center,” said Dr. Terry Klassen, Professor and Chair, Department of Pediatrics and Director of Alberta/Capital Health EPC. “It builds on the expertise we have assembled over the last few years in research synthesis and health technology assessment.”

For more information about PIHTA, visit www.cadth.ca or contact HTA Vice-President, Mike Gaucher at (613) 226-2553, ext. 274, or by e-mail at mikeg@cadth.ca.