PLENARY THEMES

NextGen HTA: Embracing Change to Meet Global Demands

Imagine a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape where advancements in technology, such as artificial intelligence and molecular genomic profiling, are reshaping our approach to health and wellness. In this dynamic environment, health technology assessment (HTA) faces significant challenges and must evolve and adapt to maintain its relevance and impact. Should HTA transition from its conventional role of gradually assessing new technologies to becoming a more proactive catalyst for broader transformation within health systems?

The keynote speaker at the 2024 HTAi Annual Meeting challenged the HTA community to consider if HTA is ready or in fact should transition from being a gatekeeping to system shaping entity. 

At the 2025 HTAi Annual meeting, the scene is set for HTAi to consider if HTA is to become a driving force in shaping broader changes within healthcare systems, influencing policy, and addressing the complex challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. 

HTA is increasingly challenged to expand its role beyond that of a gatekeeper, moving towards a more ambitious position that actively shapes health systems. To remain relevant, HTA must evolve not only to maintain its traditional function of incrementally evaluating new technologies but also to address the complexities of today’s rapidly advancing landscape, including artificial intelligence (AI) in health systems, gene therapies, precision medicine, and the environmental impact of health technologies. This shift requires developing new methodologies, processes, and a redefinition of HTA's role. 

One of the significant challenges HTA faces is keeping pace with the rapid development of these new technologies. As innovations in AI, gene therapies, and precision medicine emerge at unprecedented rates, HTA must ensure that its evaluations remain thorough, evidence-based, and capable of assessing these technologies’ safety, effectiveness, and equity. The key question is how HTA can maintain its rigorous standards without delaying the integration of potentially life-saving innovations into healthcare systems. 

Additionally, HTA must confront the growing disparities in healthcare access and outcomes across different regions and populations. By broadening its scope to include diverse healthcare contexts, HTA has the potential to address these inequalities through more inclusive and representative assessments. This approach requires HTA to consider social determinants of health, cultural differences, and the needs of underserved populations, ensuring that evaluations contribute to reducing disparities and promoting equity in healthcare. 

Despite these and many other challenges, there are significant opportunities for HTA to transform healthcare systems. By embracing a more proactive role, HTA can guide the integration of emerging technologies, ensuring they are not only effective but also aligned with broader health system goals, such as sustainability and universal health coverage. The potential to influence policy on a global scale is immense, as HTA can help shape regulations and guidelines that promote equitable access to advanced diagnostics, therapies, and other innovations. 

The goal of Plenary 1, NextGen Evidence: Embracing Change to Meet Global Demands is to underscore the importance of HTA evolving and adapting to meet and anticipate challenges, ensuring that it remains a powerful tool for improving healthcare systems worldwide. By overcoming the challenges and seizing the opportunities presented by this rapidly changing landscape, HTA can ensure that healthcare systems remain resilient, inclusive, and responsive to the ever-evolving demands of modern medicine. 

NextGen Methods: Hype or Here to Stay?

Building on the insights from Plenary 1, which will examine how emerging technologies are reshaping healthcare and the challenging demands HTA is facing globally, Plenary 2 shifts the focus to the next-generation methods essential for HTA to respond effectively to new innovations and health system needs. As the healthcare landscape evolves, there is a need for adaptive approaches that keep HTA relevant and impactful, moving beyond traditional roles to becoming a proactive force in decision-making. Practical and implementable methods that align with the rapid pace of innovation are essential to ensure HTA continues to meet the needs of decision-makers and health system partners across diverse healthcare settings.  

Next-generation methods include artificial intelligence (AI) applications in predictive modeling and the assessment of evidence for digital health and personalized medicine. The strengths and limitations of innovative trial designs and how AI can enhance efficiencies in HTA practices will be examined, such as automating evidence synthesis and managing large datasets. The aim is to understand what methods are needed to keep pace with technological advancements and to critically examine when these methods are needed, ensuring that HTA remains adaptable and effective in evaluating modern healthcare innovations.  

The focus extends to identifying the most practical tools for engagement and examining how the evolution of HTA can adapt to address broader factors like environmental impacts, equity, and ethics. Emphasis is placed on adaptive HTA—tailoring methods to fit diverse contexts, from high-income countries to low- and middle-income nations, ensuring that HTA remains relevant and impactful on a global scale. 

Emerging methods for assessing critical HTA domains, such as environmental impacts, equity, ethics, and the integration of real-world evidence into HTA practices are also highlighted. The need for a more comprehensive approach to evaluating the sustainability of healthcare technologies and delivery systems becomes clear, with attention on how effectively current methods address these growing concerns. 

Inclusive and effective engagement with decision-makers remains a priority, particularly in regions where HTA integration into decision-making processes is still developing. Opportunities exist to employ innovative visualization techniques to better communicate uncertainties in evidence and support performance-based or outcomes-based agreements. Enhancing the impact of HTA depends on clear and effective communication of complex technologies and evidence, ensuring it is both accessible and actionable for decision-makers and health system partners. 

In summary, Plenary 2 will generate a thought-provoking discussion on innovative and adaptive methods that support robust and sustainable HTA activities, meeting the diverse needs of health systems globally.  

Key questions to be explored include:  

A range of perspectives will be showcased to keep HTA at the forefront of evidence-based decision-making, focusing on next-generation methods that are poised to endure beyond initial hype.

NextGen Participation: How Can We Use HTA To Achieve More Transparent, Equitable, and Fair Health Systems? 

In the evolving landscape of global health, the pursuit of transparent, equitable, and fair health systems is more pressing than ever. This plenary session will explore the pivotal role of HTA in achieving these goals. By examining how HTA can foster trust, ensure equity, and uphold fairness, the session aims to provide a holistic view of its impact on health systems worldwide. 

Central to this discussion is the concept of trust, particularly in an era where disinformation poses significant challenges. HTA’s ability to enhance transparency in decision-making is crucial for building and maintaining this trust among the HTA community —patients, healthcare providers, policymakers, technology developers. Trust provides a practical foundation for ensuring the credibility of data and the integrity of the information guiding health decisions. 

Equity and fairness are equally critical in this context, and they are closely interlinked with transparency. As the session will highlight, HTA must go beyond traditional ethical analyses to integrate assessment of equity to ensure that all populations, especially the most vulnerable, have fair access to health technologies. The discussion will delve into how HTA can support universal health coverage (UHC), ensuring that health systems are inclusive and that access to essential services is not determined by socio-economic status. 

Fairness in health systems, deeply intertwined with transparency and equity, also hinges on the timeliness of HTA processes. Delays in these processes can exacerbate inequities and erode trust, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where resources are limited. This session will explore how timely HTA can improve fairness by ensuring that critical health technologies are accessible when they are needed most, thus reinforcing the interconnected nature of these core principles. 

Creating sustainable healthcare systems is the final piece of this intricate puzzle. As health systems worldwide confront ongoing challenges, the role of digital tools and sustainable practices in enhancing HTA’s effectiveness becomes increasingly vital. The session will explore how HTA can contribute to the long-term viability of health systems, focusing on practices that promote resilience and adaptability in response to evolving needs.

Through this comprehensive exploration of transparency, equity, fairness, and sustainability, Plenary 3 aims to demonstrate how HTA can be a catalyst for creating more resilient and just health systems. Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of HTA’s practical impact, equipped with insights that can drive meaningful improvements in healthcare delivery across diverse settings.