Health Technology Assessment Services

The vendor is required to provide from firms interested in participating on a project to conduct evidence-based health technology assessments (HPA).
- Preliminary meetings and topic development
• Contractor will participate in meetings or conference calls to discuss goals and objectives of work assignment, proposed review strategy, etc.
• At least one of these calls will be conducted at the inception of a topic assignment and will include authority staff and representation from participating agencies.
• The contractor will identify appropriate topic specific experts to discuss and clarify research questions and contextual issues that may be relevant to policy research and development.
• See task six for further information related to engaging interested parties, peer reviewers and clinical experts.
• Contractor will maintain disclosure of interest policies and procedures applicable to all review staff and identified peer reviewers and clinical experts.
• Contractor will communicate to HTA program staff and potential conflicts of interest for discussion and agreement on any necessary actions or limitations in participation for individuals with potential conflicts.
• Initial scoping discussions and inquiries are intended to be brief and to form the development of focused key questions relevant to authority policy goal.
• The contractor will submit a summary of the discussions and decisions to the authority.
- Key question development
• Contractor will conduct a limited literature scan to describe the topic background, significant issues as apparent, and to outline the potential volume and quality of published scientific research.
• Contractor will draft the preliminary key questions and scoping document and identify any necessary additional questions and will identify criteria for selecting sources of evidence, including strategies for describing explicit details of the literature review.
• Key question development will include picot(s), analytic framework, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and references.
• Contractor will submit draft key questions in agreed upon format to authority for review and be ready for publication to receive public comment.
• Contractor will review public comments in preparation for final key question deliverables.
- Work plan
• Contractor will submit a work plan describing the assessment and refinement phase, proposed literature search and review (abstracts and full text), study inclusion and exclusion criteria, and criteria for evaluating the quality of studies and rating the strength of overall body of evidence using the grading of recommendations, assessment, development, and evaluation (grade) work, or a substantially similar methodology agreed upon with authority.
o In addition to other information identified through the inclusion criteria and search, the contractor must consider:
(i) Safety, health outcome, and cost data submitted by participating state agencies; and
(ii) Evidence submitted by any interested party
• The work plan will include a detailed estimate of work required to complete each phase and task of the project including labor category and cost based on labor category hours per product, or based on fixed-price methods.
o Deviations or change orders from the work plan must be agreed upon in advance and approved by the HTA program.
- Data collection and synthesis
• Contractor will systematically search multiple appropriate databases abstract, review, synthesize, and analyze the results of the data, including evaluation of individual studies for issues that may affect validity and synthesis of results of data from multiple studies.
- Draft reports
• Contractor will prepare a draft HTA report that communicates the results of the synthesis in a readily accessible format for multiple audiences in agreed upon format.
• The assessment must give the greatest weight to the evidence determined, based on objective indicators, to be the most valid and reliable, considering the nature and source of the evidence, the empirical characteristics of the studies or trials upon which the evidence is based, and the consistency of the outcome with comparable studies.
• The assessment must take into account and report whether there are any unique impacts of the technology on specific populations based upon factors such as sex, age, ethnicity, race, or disability
- Identify interested parties
• For each technology review the contractor shall identify peer reviewers to ensure input from a range of clinical and professional interests for a particular topic and submit a draft report to these individuals.
• Additional contractor assignments may include identifying, engaging or responding to HTA program stakeholders including patients, patient advocates, specialty societies, and providers to assess relevant perspectives and values relevant to a technology review.
- Presentations of the findings
• Contractor will produce and present a detailed summary of the health technology assessment or other assigned work product to authority staff, the health technology clinical committee and interested stakeholders in an open meeting
- Health technology assessment content deliverables
• The entity with specialized expertise, is responsible for the content within these requirements; is responsible for communicating and obtaining agreement from the authority for the appropriate method, approach, and content areas for the assessment; and is responsible for ensuring appropriate attributions and permissions are obtained from a third party cited or included
• In all cases, the format and information included in each assessment must conform to the standard format agreed to for the assessment.
• Their adherence to agreed terms, quality, clarity, and credibility, including the required methodological process and expertise. deliverables are owned by the authority; however, contractor is permitted to provide the document, or link to the document, with appropriate attribution in its marketing and other materials or to other clients, except that no additional fee may be charged to other clients for a copy of authority owned materials.
- Health technology assessment summary
a) Structured abstract;
b) Introduction/burden of illness;
c) Methods and key questions;
d) Results and conclusions, including information on what data was available, as well as the quality of those data, for each key question;
e) Special analyses, if any;
f) Selected abbreviated tables;
g) Discussion; and
h) References
- Electronic copies
a) Entire study bibliography;
b) Reference list;
c) Detailed search strategy, including terms, exclusions
d) Inclusions and exclusion criteria for assessing study relevancy; and
e) For all excluded studies, reasons for exclusion.
- Other health technology assessment services and tasks
a) Engage in translation and dissemination activities related to the authored reports outside the report finalization and presentation required;
b) Perform special analyses such as meta-analyses, cost effectiveness analyses, decision analyses, clinical guideline analysis support;
c) Update evidence-based practice center (EPC) reports and assessments for use by the HTA program;
d) Undertake methods research;
e) Develop evidence-based curricula, or provide training opportunities in systematic reviews and assessments or in conducting educational sessions on interpretation and understanding of research studies;
f) Design special dissemination strategies for products;
g) Scan peer-reviewed and gray literature to identify topics that may be appropriate for development of an evidence report or technology assessment;
h) Evaluate the use and impact of evidence reports and technology assessment on the quality, outcomes, and costs of healthcare;
i) Identify or otherwise work with a clinical expert for each specific topic. the role of the expert may include acting as a resource during scoping, key question development, and at the meeting of the clinical committee.
j) Provide clinical consultation services to the HTA program; and
k) Other related assignments as requested.
- Contract Period/Term: 4 years
- Pre-Proposal Conference Date: April 02, 2025
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: April 04, 2025