Principles for Health
Technology Assessment

Healthcare decisions shape lives.

Value research and health technology assessment (HTA) can be powerful approaches to guiding these decisions, but to fulfill its promise, HTA and value research must go beyond cost-effectiveness and embrace principles that prioritize patient perspectives, lived experiences, and long-term value.

Our mission is clear: to ensure that research, policy, and practice are grounded in patient-centered value. These principles define how we believe healthcare systems should measure success—not just in dollars saved, but in lives improved.

core Principles

Sustains Authentic Patient-Centricity

Health Technology Assessment must consistently establish diverse patient partnerships in governance, priority setting ...

Sustains Authentic Patient-Centricity

Health technology assessment must consistently establish diverse patient partnerships in governance, priority setting, and the creation of models. Assessors should lead robust research in patient preference and data improvement to ensure value assessment is authentic and relevant to the diverse patient experience.

Advances Transparency

Health Technology Assessment in the U.S. should accelerate the development of open-source modeling ...

Advances Transparency

Health technology assessment in the U.S. should accelerate the development of open-source modeling and application to improve stakeholder trust and establish open dialogue. Assumptions and coding should be transparent to allow public validation and stimulate replication across disease and interventional analyses.

Supports
Health Equity

Health Technology Assessment should facilitate sub-group and distributional impact analyses; drive ...

Supports Health Equity

Health technology assessment should facilitate sub-group and distributional impact analyses; drive improved methods in clinical, outcomes, and preferences research to reflect diverse communities and experiences; and inform policy dialogue about improving access and equity.

supporting Principles

Focuses Value Discussion Across Treatment Interventions

Health Technology Assessment must evolve beyond siloed comparisons within a class or intervention type ...

Focuses Value Discussion Across Treatment Interventions

Health Technology Assessment must evolve beyond siloed comparisons within a class or intervention type to consider benefit, risk, and trade-offs for optimal treatment approaches.

Improves Clinical and Real-World Data

Health Technology Assessment must define priorities for data resource investments, including patient-provided information ...

Improves Clinical and Real-World Data

Health Technology Assessment must define priorities for data resource investments, including patient-provided information such as burden of disease, patient preferences, patient reported outcomes and impacts, and clinical endpoints. The standardization of real-world data generation and the practical application of data sources in health technology assessment must be prioritized.

Facilitates Customizable Decision-Making

Decision-maker needs (e.g., employer, purchaser, payer, and those shared by clinician and patient) ...

Facilitates Customizable Decision-Making

Decision-maker needs (e.g., employer, purchaser, payer, and those shared by clinician and patient) should inform the development of Health Technology Assessment methods and tools. In turn, such resources should include customizable analyses and tools to support localized decisions.

Adapts to and with Evolving Evidence

Health Technology Assessment must contribute to a continuous learning environment. Model developers ...

Adapts to and with Evolving Evidence

Health Technology Assessment must contribute to a continuous learning environment. Model developers can do this by accounting for scientific uncertainty, patient heterogeneity, and evolving evidence related to disease states and clinical outcomes, quality-of-life impacts, and disparities in care.

Cultivates Modernized Methods

Health Technology Assessment initiatives must support the evolution of traditional cost-effectiveness analyses ...

Cultivates Modernized Methods

Health Technology Assessment initiatives must support the evolution of traditional cost-effectiveness analyses and complementary approaches that address societal perspectives and broader cost parameters, as well as reduce discrimination and disparities based on patient heterogeneity or disability

Fosters Long-Run Innovation

Health Technology Assessment must be able to recognize and distinguish transformative therapies ...

Fosters Long-Run Innovation

Health Technology Assessment must be able to recognize and distinguish transformative therapies and inform national dialogue about incentivizing and rewarding technological innovation.

A central theme for these principles is establishing best practices for applying health technology assessment and value research in real-world decision-making. To make value research truly effective, stakeholders must work toward a shared understanding of the most relevant methods and use cases for the U.S. healthcare landscape.

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