title: Health technology assessment (HTA): ethical aspects.
abstract: "HTA is a multidisciplinary process that summarizes information about the medical, social, economic and ethical issues related to the use of a health technology in a systematic, transparent, unbiased, robust manner. Its aim is to inform the formulation of safe, effective, health policies that are patient focused, and seek to achieve best value" (EUnetHTA 2007). Even though the assessment of ethical aspects of a health technology is listed as one of the objectives of a HTA process, in practice, the integration of these dimensions into reports remains limited. The article is focused on four points: 1. the HTA concept; 2. the difficult HTA-ethics relationship; 3. the ethical issues in HTA; 4. the methods for integrating ethical analysis into HTA.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Bioethics, A. Gemelli School of Medicine, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Largo F. Vito, 1, 00168, Rome, Italy. dsacchini@rm.unicatt.it
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sacchini
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Virdis
authors.forename: Pietro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Refolo
authors.forename: Maddalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pennacchini
authors.forename: Ignacio Carrasco
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: de Paula
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000941:ethics / Q000458:organization & administration; D015276:Health Care Rationing / Q000941:ethics / Q000458:organization & administration; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D011050:Policy Making; D011322:Primary Prevention / Q000941:ethics / Q000458:organization & administration; D013673:Technology Assessment, Biomedical / Q000941:ethics* / Q000458:organization & administration*