Ethics in Canadian health technology assessment: a descriptive review.
BACKGROUND
Despite the mandate to examine the medical, ethical, and economic implications of the development and use of health technology, health technology assessment (HTA) reports often emphasize the epidemiologic and economic aspects, and omit ethical considerations. This study examines both whether and how ethical issues are incorporated into HTA.


OBJECTIVE
We aim to (i) review a set of Canadian HTA reports for ethics content, (ii) describe the strategies used to incorporate ethically relevant information into HTA, and (iii) determine the presence of implicit ethical issues in a sample of HTA reports.


METHODS
Descriptive and qualitative content analysis of 608 HTA reports produced by six Canadian HTA agencies from January 1997 to December 2006.


RESULTS
We found that (i) a minority (17 percent) of Canadian HTA reports addressed ethical issues, (ii) secondary research predominates while primary analysis is rare, (iii) implicit ethical issues are present in HTA reports that do not purport to address ethics.


CONCLUSIONS
Canadian HTA reports rarely explicitly, and then only superficially, address ethics, though implicit ethical issues abound.
DeJean
Deirdre
D
Health Research Methodology Programme, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada. dejeand@mcmaster.ca
Giacomini
Mita
M
Schwartz
Lisa
L
Miller
Fiona A
FA
D001675:Bioethics; D002170:Canada; D006801:Humans; D009014:Morals; D012945:Social Values; D013673:Technology Assessment, Biomedical / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence