STRENGTHENING PATIENT VOICE IN HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT VALUE JUDGEMENT ACROSS GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL HEALTH SYSTEMS
Author(s)
Ahmed Shalaby, MBA1, Ahmad Fasseeh, phd1, Baher Ahmed Elezbawy, MPH, PhD1, Haider Shamsi, Dr2, Hassan Nuaimat, dr3, Hussain Abdulrahman Al-Omar, MSc, PhD4, Nadia Al Mazrouei, dr5, Said Wani, BSc, MSc6, Sana Alblooshi, Dr7, Sara Mohibullah Al Balushi, III, BA8, Sherif Attia Abaza, MBA9, Zoltan Kalo, PhD10, Anas Hamad, MSc, PhD11.
1Syreon Middle East, Alexandria, Egypt, 2Department of Health, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 3Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, dubai, United Arab Emirates, 4College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 5Department of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmacotherapeutics, College of Pharmacy, University of Sharjah, sharjah, United Arab Emirates, 6Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary, 7Tawam, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 8Directorate General of Medical Supplies-M.O.H, Oman, Oman, 9Syreon, Cairo, Egypt, 10National Health Insurance Fund, Hungary, Budapest, Hungary, 11Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar.
1Syreon Middle East, Alexandria, Egypt, 2Department of Health, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 3Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, dubai, United Arab Emirates, 4College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 5Department of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmacotherapeutics, College of Pharmacy, University of Sharjah, sharjah, United Arab Emirates, 6Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary, 7Tawam, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 8Directorate General of Medical Supplies-M.O.H, Oman, Oman, 9Syreon, Cairo, Egypt, 10National Health Insurance Fund, Hungary, Budapest, Hungary, 11Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar.
OBJECTIVES: To identify patient-centric value elements, barriers, and implementation priorities for institutionalizing patient voice in health technology assessment (HTA), reimbursement, procurement, and value-based decision-making across Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) health systems.
METHODS: An Integrated mixed-methods policy analysis synthesized evidence from a rapid literature review, Gulf Pharmacy Conference 2025 workshop outputs, Mentimeter voting from 13 consenting participants, and 10 structured stakeholder interviews across the United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Qatar. Deductive and inductive thematic synthesis was used to identify value elements, barriers, governance requirements, and implementation priorities.
RESULTS: Patient participation was consistently recognized as necessary for legitimate, transparent, and contextually relevant HTA, but current practice remains fragmented and weakly institutionalized. Priority patient-centric value elements included long-term safety and benefit certainty, responsiveness to individual needs, caregiver/family quality of life, treatment burden, ability to reach personal milestones, and value of hope for potentially curative technologies. Key barriers included lack of formal guidance, unclear patient roles, limited recruitment pathways, representativeness concerns, capacity gaps, confidentiality and conflict-of-interest issues, and limited documentation of how patient input influences decisions. Stakeholders supported staged implementation through scoping-stage input, standardized patient insight templates, patient-friendly materials, disease-specific pilots, formal reporting of patient input, and parallel capacity building for patients and HTA institutions.
CONCLUSIONS: Patient voice can be feasibly integrated into GCC HTA systems through a structured, staged, and governance-based approach. Formal guidance, role taxonomy, transparent documentation, safeguards, and direct patient/caregiver validation are required to move from recognition to meaningful institutionalization.
METHODS: An Integrated mixed-methods policy analysis synthesized evidence from a rapid literature review, Gulf Pharmacy Conference 2025 workshop outputs, Mentimeter voting from 13 consenting participants, and 10 structured stakeholder interviews across the United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Qatar. Deductive and inductive thematic synthesis was used to identify value elements, barriers, governance requirements, and implementation priorities.
RESULTS: Patient participation was consistently recognized as necessary for legitimate, transparent, and contextually relevant HTA, but current practice remains fragmented and weakly institutionalized. Priority patient-centric value elements included long-term safety and benefit certainty, responsiveness to individual needs, caregiver/family quality of life, treatment burden, ability to reach personal milestones, and value of hope for potentially curative technologies. Key barriers included lack of formal guidance, unclear patient roles, limited recruitment pathways, representativeness concerns, capacity gaps, confidentiality and conflict-of-interest issues, and limited documentation of how patient input influences decisions. Stakeholders supported staged implementation through scoping-stage input, standardized patient insight templates, patient-friendly materials, disease-specific pilots, formal reporting of patient input, and parallel capacity building for patients and HTA institutions.
CONCLUSIONS: Patient voice can be feasibly integrated into GCC HTA systems through a structured, staged, and governance-based approach. Formal guidance, role taxonomy, transparent documentation, safeguards, and direct patient/caregiver validation are required to move from recognition to meaningful institutionalization.
Conference/Value in Health Info
2026-11, ISPOR Europe 2026, Vienna, Austria
Value in Health, Volume 29, Issue 12S
Code
HTA204
Topic
Health Policy & Regulatory, Health Technology Assessment, Patient-Centered Research
Topic Subcategory
Decision & Deliberative Processes
Disease
No Additional Disease & Conditions/Specialized Treatment Areas