Oncotyrol--Center for Personalized Cancer Medicine: Methods and Applications of Health Technology Assessment and Outcomes Research.
BACKGROUND
The Oncotyrol - Center for Personalized Cancer Medicine is an international and interdisciplinary alliance combining research and commercial competencies to accelerate the development, evaluation and translation of personalized healthcare strategies in cancer. The philosophy of Oncotyrol is to collaborate with relevant stakeholders and advance knowledge "from bench to bedside to population and back". Oncotyrol is funded through the COMET Excellence Program by the Austrian government via the national Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG). This article focuses on the role of health technology assessment (HTA) and outcomes research in personalized cancer medicine in the context of Oncotyrol.


METHODS
Oncotyrol, which currently comprises approximately 20 individual projects, has four research areas: Area 1: Biomarker and Drug Target Identification; Area 2: Assay Development and Drug Screening; Area 3: Innovative Therapies; Area 4: Health Technology Assessment and Bioinformatics. Area 4 translates the results from Areas 1 to 3 to populations and society and reports them back to Area 3 to inform clinical studies and guidelines, and to Areas 1 and 2 to guide further research and development.


RESULTS
In a series of international expert workshops, the Oncotyrol International Expert Task Force for Personalized Cancer Medicine developed the Methodological Framework for Early Health Technology Assessment and Decision Modeling in Cancer and practical guidelines in this field. Further projects included applications in the fields of sequential treatment of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), benefit-harm and cost-effectiveness evaluation of prostate cancer screening, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of multiple cervical cancer screening strategies, and benefits and cost-effectiveness of genomic test-based treatment strategies in breast cancer.


CONCLUSIONS
An interdisciplinary setting as generated in Oncotyrol provides unique opportunities such as systematically coordinating lab and bench research, product development, clinical studies and decision science/HTA and transparent joint planning of research and development with a partnership of researchers, manufacturers and health policy decision makers. However, generating a joint research and legal framework with numerous partners from different sectors can be challenging, particularly in the starting period of such an endeavor. The journey to translational personalized medicine through multidisciplinary collaborations may still be long and difficult, but it is evident that it must be continued to turn vision into reality.
Institute of Public Health, Medical Decision Making and Health Technology Assessment, Department of Public Health and Health Technology Assessment, UMIT - University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Hall i.T., Austria; Division of Health Technology Assessment and Bioinformatics, ONCOTYROL - Center for Personalized Cancer Medicine, Innsbruck, Austria; Center for Health Decision Science, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA; Institute for Technology Assessment and Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: public-health@umit.at.
Uwe
U
Siebert
Institute of Public Health, Medical Decision Making and Health Technology Assessment, Department of Public Health and Health Technology Assessment, UMIT - University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Hall i.T., Austria.
Beate
B
Jahn
Institute of Public Health, Medical Decision Making and Health Technology Assessment, Department of Public Health and Health Technology Assessment, UMIT - University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Hall i.T., Austria; Division of Health Technology Assessment and Bioinformatics, ONCOTYROL - Center for Personalized Cancer Medicine, Innsbruck, Austria.
Ursula
U
Rochau
Institute of Public Health, Medical Decision Making and Health Technology Assessment, Department of Public Health and Health Technology Assessment, UMIT - University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Hall i.T., Austria; Division of Health Technology Assessment and Bioinformatics, ONCOTYROL - Center for Personalized Cancer Medicine, Innsbruck, Austria.
Petra
P
Schnell-Inderst
Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Health Technology Assessment, Vienna, Austria.
Agnes
A
Kisser
Institute of Public Health, Medical Decision Making and Health Technology Assessment, Department of Public Health and Health Technology Assessment, UMIT - University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Hall i.T., Austria; Division of Health Technology Assessment and Bioinformatics, ONCOTYROL - Center for Personalized Cancer Medicine, Innsbruck, Austria.
Theresa
T
Hunger
Institute of Public Health, Medical Decision Making and Health Technology Assessment, Department of Public Health and Health Technology Assessment, UMIT - University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Hall i.T., Austria; Division of Health Technology Assessment and Bioinformatics, ONCOTYROL - Center for Personalized Cancer Medicine, Innsbruck, Austria.
Gaby
G
Sroczynski
Institute of Public Health, Medical Decision Making and Health Technology Assessment, Department of Public Health and Health Technology Assessment, UMIT - University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Hall i.T., Austria; Division of Health Technology Assessment and Bioinformatics, ONCOTYROL - Center for Personalized Cancer Medicine, Innsbruck, Austria.
Nikolai
N
Mühlberger
Internal Medicine V - Haematology and Oncology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
Wolfgang
W
Willenbacher
Cemit GmbH, Innsbruck, Austria.
Simon
S
Schnaiter
Main Association of Austrian Social Insurance Institutions, Vienna, Austria.
Gottfried
G
Endel
Center Management, ONCOTYROL - Center for Personalized Cancer Medicine, Innsbruck, Austria; Division of Cell Biology, Medical University Innsbruck, Austria.
Lukas
L
Huber
Internal Medicine V - Haematology and Oncology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
Guenther
G
Gastl
D001317:Austria; D002173:Cancer Care Facilities; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D010686:Philosophy, Medical; D057285:Precision Medicine / Q000379:methods*; D013673:Technology Assessment, Biomedical / Q000379:methods*; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical
Forschungskooperation; Health Technology Assessment; Krebserkrankungen; Personalisierte Medizin; Personalized medicine; Translation; Versorgungsforschung; cancer; health technology assessment; outcomes research; research cooperation; translation