TY - JOUR
T1 - Integrating Ethics in Health Technology Assessment: many ways to Rome
AU - Refolo, Pietro
AU - Sacchini, Dario
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify and discuss appropriate approaches to integrate ethical inquiry in health technology assessment (HTA).
Methods: The key question is how ethics can be integrated in HTA. This is addressed in two steps: by investigating what it means to integrate ethics in HTA, and by assessing how
suitable the various methods in ethics are to be integrated in HTA according to these meanings of integration.
Results: In the first step, we found that integrating ethics can mean that ethics is (a) subsumed under or (b) combined with other parts of the HTA process; that it can be (c)
coordinated with other parts; or that (d) ethics actively interacts and changes other parts of the HTA process. For the second step, we found that the various methods in ethics have
different merits with respect to the four conceptions of integration in HTA.
Conclusions: Traditional approaches in moral philosophy tend to be most suited to be subsumed or combined, while processual approaches being close to the HTA or implementation
process appear to be most suited to coordinated and interactive types of integration. The article provides a guide for choosing the ethics approach that appears most appropriate for
the goals and process of a particular HTA
AB - Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify and discuss appropriate approaches to integrate ethical inquiry in health technology assessment (HTA).
Methods: The key question is how ethics can be integrated in HTA. This is addressed in two steps: by investigating what it means to integrate ethics in HTA, and by assessing how
suitable the various methods in ethics are to be integrated in HTA according to these meanings of integration.
Results: In the first step, we found that integrating ethics can mean that ethics is (a) subsumed under or (b) combined with other parts of the HTA process; that it can be (c)
coordinated with other parts; or that (d) ethics actively interacts and changes other parts of the HTA process. For the second step, we found that the various methods in ethics have
different merits with respect to the four conceptions of integration in HTA.
Conclusions: Traditional approaches in moral philosophy tend to be most suited to be subsumed or combined, while processual approaches being close to the HTA or implementation
process appear to be most suited to coordinated and interactive types of integration. The article provides a guide for choosing the ethics approach that appears most appropriate for
the goals and process of a particular HTA
KW - Health Technology Assessment
KW - Health Technology Assessment
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10807/67316
U2 - 10.1017/S026646231500029X
DO - 10.1017/S026646231500029X
M3 - Article
SN - 0266-4623
VL - 31
SP - 1
EP - 7
JO - International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care
JF - International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care
ER -