The Evolution of HTA in Emerging Markets Health-Care ... - TREE

OHE Consulting Report for PhRMA
5 January 2011
8 Health Care systems and HTA in Brazil, China and Taiwan
8.1 Sources of Information
Information relating to healthcare systems and HTA use in the three countries, Brazil, China and
Taiwan, was obtained using a number of different processes. These are outlined below. Throughout,
local information relates to that published within the country.
1) A number of literature searches were performed using PUBMED, Google and Google scholar.
Key words utilised in these searches included: (“Health technology assessment” OR “HTA”)
and (Brazil OR China OR Taiwan). The article section based on these results was then refined
using the title and filtering out studies that were disease or drug-­‐specific. These searches
were supplemented by reviewing a number of key papers identified by the steering group or
based on the knowledge of team members.
2) Key health statistics, such as healthcare spend per capita, can help to complement the
literature in creating a broad picture of the healthcare system of a country. As such, a
number of statistics for each of the countries was identified using key international data
sources, primarily WHOSIS and WHO global health indicators. Google searches were also
performed. Where information was not available through international sources or where the
internationally published data conflicted with the local information, it was supplemented by
the local team members, with preference given to the locally published data, where this was
considered to have a greater degree of accuracy. The findings are included in Table 2
3) In order to gain a more in-­‐depth and up-­‐to-­‐date understanding of the healthcare systems
and HTA processes in these countries, a number of local experts in the field were identified,
and local team members utilised to conduct interviews with these experts. A scope for the
interviews was formulated by considering the information available in the international
literature and ensuring that the scope would be sufficient to form a broad picture of the
healthcare systems in conjunction with HTA processes for the three countries. To help
ensure that the interview scope would cover the key features and provide sufficient
information to classify HTA within that country, available information based on the
international literature was utilised to complete a pre-­‐existing classification system
(Chalkidou, 2009), and questions were incorporated that would ensure this classification
could be fully completed with the completed interview scripts. See Appendix 4 for the
interview scope. In total, six interviews of local experts were performed by the local team
members. The local experts were identified by a process of consultation between team
members, including the local members of the team, with valuable input from members of
the steering group. Additional potential experts were identified based on the key
international literature. See Appendix 5 for a list of those interviewed. See Appendix 6 for a
summary of the findings from the interviews.
5) In addition to the international literature identified as described in 1), local/grey literature
also provides useful insights into the healthcare systems and HTA processes for these
countries.
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