Health technology assessment (HTA) increasingly important in spine research

acknowledges the increasing attention for economic evaluations and would like to stimulate researchers to submit original papers of economic evaluations of orthopedic devices/instruments and surgical interventions for spine problems, but also pharmaceutical and conservative interventions for back and neck pain. Because back and neck pain are among the most prevalent health problems and are associated with huge costs of health care utilization and productivity losses, economic evaluations in this field are direly needed to facilitate wellinformed clinical and policy decisions.