Objectives: Health Technology Management (HTM) involves systems designed to ensure the safe, effective, and cost-effective use of health technologies following reimbursement.This study examines the recommendations of Ireland's Health Service Executive-Drugs Group (HSE-DG), exploring the characteristics and patterns of positive or conditional positive recommendations and HTM-related requirements.Methods: We reviewed the minutes of HSE-DG meetings between January 2018 and December 2023.Data on medicines reviewed during this period were extracted into Microsoft Excel and analysed narratively.Results: Over the study period, the HSE-DG reviewed 192 medicines (including new medicines and new indications for existing medicines), of which 157 received positive (115) or conditional positive recommendations (42).Of these, 33 were subject to HTM conditions, typically involving a Managed Access Protocol (MAP) or a specific reimbursement application process.Due to inconsistent reporting of key information, quantitative analysis was not feasible.However, common characteristics among HTM-linked recommendations emerged.These included submissions for reimbursement targeting a subset of the licensed population (45.5 percent vs. 5.6 percent in non-HTM cases), designation as orphan medicines (39.4 percent vs 29.8 percent) and having both first in class and new chemical entity designations (75.8 percent vs 47.6 percent).Conclusions: Findings indicate an increasing trend towards positive/conditional positive reimbursement recommendations with HTM in the Irish setting, with an average of 21 percent of positive/conditional positive recommendations over the study period contingent on HTM.More granular and consistent reporting of key indicators would enable determination of characteristics associated with reimbursement recommendations with HTM.
Aluga et al. (Mon,) studied this question.