Summary:

Introduction: Not only does health technology assessment have a clear support role in decision-making at different levels, but today it possibly assumes even more importance for important reasons, such as demographic shifts in the population, increased life expectancy and the appearance of new health technologies, all of which makes changes in health policies a matter of necessity. With regard to the latter, health-service planning and management is being aided by early detection systems that target new and emerging technologies, with the aim of providing preliminary information about the effectiveness, safety, clinical utility and cost of technologies likely to have a high impact on health systems.

Health technology assessment agencies are tasked with identifying and selecting technologies of foreseeably high impact. It was to this end, therefore, that in 2011 avalia-t developed and subsequently validated a bibliographic search strategy to explore leading biomedical databases in search of new and emerging technologies likely to be of clinical interest. The technologies so identified are evaluated by health professionals who then help in assessing and prioritising the technologies selected. Prioritisation criteria were predefined for this purpose and a questionnaire was designed with explicit indications as to how to classify and score technologies. This study furnishes a list of new and emerging technologies, systematically prioritised on the basis of the views and values of health professionals implicated, whether directly or indirectly, in the application of such technologies.

This study was undertaken within the context of the 2015 Work Plan implemented by the Spanish Network of Health Technology Assessment Agencies and National Health System (NHS) Services, and funded by the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality for the purpose of providing the Directorate-General of the Basic NHS and Pharmacy Service Portfolio with a list of potentially high-impact technologies that might be eligible for inclusion in the service portfolio in the near future (0-2 years).