Health technology assessment

Too often Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is still an insider concept in many fields of medicine. Access is often hindered by the wrong information or by none at all on this interdisciplinary concept, with its frequently different conceptual worlds and modes of work, fear of encroachment on personal professional freedom, the attempt to use HTA reports to enforce cost-cutting, and its origins in political science. This results in an immense loss of information, which runs counter to the very fears listed above. This contribution first clarifies the various concepts and then presents the goals of HTA. Finally, we describe the groups of interest in the medical sphere and discuss their positive and negative relationships to HTA. The aim is to show that HTA objectively evaluates medical procedures based on the health system in question and on the social structure, and that the fears of the various groups are unjustified. Far from being “cookbook” medicine, HTA provides valid information relevant to everyday life in a compact, evaluated form, thereby releasing resources to increase freedom of action by reducing cost pressures.