OBJECTIVES: Hospital-based health technology assessment (HB-HTA) improves evidence-based investment decisions in healthcare units. The project led by consortium of National Health Fund, Institute of Cardiology in Warsaw and Lazarski University aims at the implementation of HB-HTA in Polish hospitals. Purpose of this systematic review is to identify and characterize HB-HTA reports in Europe and North America.

METHODS: Systematic review in The Cochrane Library, CRD, EMBASE, Google Scholar, Pubmed, ISI Web of Knowledge, GENESIS, AdHopHTA was performed. Search of websites of HTA organisations, such as INAHTA, ISPOR, HTAi, CEDIT, hospitals websites and conference abstracts were also conducted. Reports that met predefined inclusion criteria, published form January 2004 up to May 2019, were included in the analysis and the following data were extracted: the name of the technology, its characteristics and label for use, the report issuing entity followed by its geographical location and type (hospital/hospital network, academia, governmental unit), report details focused on purpose, methods and outcomes.

RESULTS: 1326 reports from Canada, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark were identified with 90% from West Europe. HB-HTA reports were mainly prepared by academic centres (65%) followed by governmental organisations (18%) and less than 10% of the reports by hospital networks. Therapeutic procedures were most commonly evaluated (93%) with drugs constituting 76% of all reports. Clinical analyses were provided by 71% of reports while 68% and 34% reports included economic evaluations and budget impact analyses, respectively. Majority of decisions were positive or conditionally positive (20 and 32%, respectively), however almost 1/3 of reports were non-conclusive.

CONCLUSIONS: HB-HTA is an established approach in decision making practice and needs an effective implementation to facilitate faster and more tailored uptake of technologies.