title: Toward a procedure for integrating moral issues in health technology assessment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although ethics has been on the agenda in health technology assessment (HTA) since its inception, the integration of moral issues is still not standard and is performed in a vast variety of ways. Therefore, there is a need for a procedure for integrating moral issues in HTA.
  
  
  METHODS
  Literature review of existing approaches together with application of various theories in moral philosophy and axiology.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The article develops a set of questions that addresses a wide range of moral issues related to the assessment and implementation of health technology. The issues include general moral issues and moral issues related to stakeholders, methodology, characteristics of technology, and to the HTA process itself. The questions form a kind of checklist for use in HTAs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The presented approach for integrating moral issues in HTA has a broad theoretical foundation and has shown to be useful in practice. Integrating ethical issues in HTAs can be of great importance with respect to the dissemination of HTA results and in efficient health policy making.
authors.affiliation: University of Oslo, Blindern, N-0318, Oslo, Norway. b.m.hofmann@medisin.uio.no
authors.forename: Bjørn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hofmann
mesh_terms: D001675:Bioethics; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D026689:Ethical Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009014:Morals; D012107:Research Design; D013673:Technology Assessment, Biomedical / Q000941:ethics* / Q000379:methods*