[Dictionary] Health Technology Assessment (HTA)

Health technology assessment (HTA) is the systematic, multidisciplinary process by which a national or regional body evaluates a health technology -- a drug, medical device, diagnostic test, or procedure -- across its clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, safety, and broader organisational, social and ethical impact, to inform a coverage, pricing, or reimbursement decision. HTA is the international family of institutions and methods that a specific national process, such as NICE's technology appraisal in the UK, is one member of; the term names the general discipline and its bodies (NICE, IQWiG, HAS, CADTH, PBAC, and others), not any single country's procedure.