title: Development of archetypes for non-ranking classification and comparison of European National Health Technology Assessment systems.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  European countries are increasingly utilising health technology assessment (HTA) to inform reimbursement decision-making. However, the current European HTA environment is very diverse, and projects are already underway to initiate a more efficient and aligned HTA practice within Europe. This study aims to identify a non-ranking method for classifying the diversity of European HTA agencies process and the organisational architecture of the national regulatory review to reimbursement systems.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Using a previously developed mapping methodology, this research created process maps to describe national processes for regulatory review to reimbursement for 33 European jurisdictions. These process maps enabled the creation of 2 HTA taxonomic sets. The confluence of the two taxonomic sets was subsequently cross-referenced to identify 10 HTA archetype groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  HTA is a young, rapidly evolving field and it can be argued that optimal practices for performing HTA are yet to emerge. Therefore, a non-ranking classification approach could objectively characterise and compare the diversity observed in the current European HTA environment.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Socioeconomic Research, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cardiff University, Redwood Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3NB, UK; Centre for Innovation in Regulatory Science (formerly CMR International Institute for Regulatory Science), Hatton Garden, London EC1N 8JS, UK. Electronic address: allenna1@cardiff.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: Franz
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pichler
authors.forename: Tina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Sundip
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: Sam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Salek
mesh_terms: D020811:Biomedical Technology; D003657:Decision Making; D005060:Europe; D006291:Health Policy; D019458:Insurance Coverage; D007349:Insurance, Health, Reimbursement; D011050:Policy Making; D013673:Technology Assessment, Biomedical / Q000145:classification*
keywords: Comparative analysis; Decision-making; Health care systems; Health technology assessment; Process mapping