From Health Technology Assessment to Health Technology Sustainability

Francesca Iandolo, Pietro Vito, Irene Fulco and Francesca Loia
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Pietro Vito: Department of Management, Sapienza University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy
Irene Fulco: Department of Management, Sapienza University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy
Francesca Loia: Department of Management, Sapienza University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 12, 1-22

Abstract: This paper aims to propose a methodological lens to the assessment of technological innovations in healthcare based on the principles of social, economic, and political sustainability. Starting from the consideration of a lack of a unified interpretative framework of health technology assessment, using a content analysis of the relevant literature on the topic, we identified both the scientific perspectives adopted by the scholars and the most widely discussed topics. Consequently, the less explored scientific areas were framed, and, therefore, those more susceptible to further investigation came to light. The result is an overall picture which highlights the absence of unified and generally accepted approaches to evaluation, together with the lack of awareness on the fact that the multiplicity of methods adopted is essentially connected to the multiplicity of innovations, for each of which a method (or a set of methods) of preferable evaluation can be prefigured. Based on these observations, we propose a general reference framework for evaluation, based on the Viable Systems Approach (vSa), and a schematic outline of the connections between the complexity of innovations and the evaluation methodologies.

Keywords: health technology assessment; evaluation methods; viable systems approach; healthcare; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:12:p:4748-:d:190122

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