Increasing Confidence Among Patient Organisations to Make Submissions to a Health Technology Assessment Agency in Ireland: Impact of an Online Webinar

OBJECTIVES: The National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics (NCPE) have a Patient Organisation Submission Process (POSP) enabling patients, families and carers to communicate their experiences to the drug-reimbursement decision maker. From 2021 to 2023 inclusive, 34 of 79 (43%) completed HTAs were associated with a Patient Organisation (PO) submission. To improve awareness, the NCPE ran a lunchtime webinar for POs (April 2024).

METHODS: POs were invited to register via email invite, the NCPE website and social media. The webinar provided an overview of POSP and tips for completing a submission. At the start and end of the webinar, attendees completed a Likert scale poll on how confident they currently felt about making a PO submission to the NCPE (not confident at all; slightly confident; somewhat confident; fairly confident; completely confident).

RESULTS: Representatives from 39 separate POs registered for the webinar and representatives from 33 POs attended on the day. In relation to previous experience, 12 of 26 attendees (46%) answered that their PO had not previously made a submission to the NCPE. At the start of the webinar over half of attendees (13 of 25; 52%) answered that they currently felt not confident at all or slightly confident about making a PO submission, with only 4 of 25 attendees (16%) answering that they felt fairly confident. At the end of the webinar 19 of 27 attendees (70%) answered that they currently felt fairly confident or completely confident about making a PO submission with only 1 of 27 attendees (1%) answering that they felt slightly confident.

CONCLUSIONS: Attending an online webinar on the POSP improved confidence among representatives of POs to make a submission to the NCPE. The NCPE will continue to liaise with POs and run initiatives in an effort to improve uptake of the POSP.