OBJECTIVES: Deliberation in HTA is the informed and critical examination of an issue and the weighing of arguments and evidence to guide a subsequent decision. However, there are implicit factors impacting the HTA recommendations through this process. Since these factors are not acknowledged in the HTA guidelines or HTA recommendation, they may jeopardize the legitimacy and transparency of HTA. Hence, the RELIANT checklist (REveaLing Implicit fActors iN HTA) aims to assist HTA decision-making by accounting for implicit factors.

METHODS: A targeted literature review was performed to identify existing checklists assisting the HTA deliberative process. The findings from a SLR previously published by our research group, from qualitative research with HTA experts as well as the results of an assessment of the HTAi/ISPOR checklist contributed to the development of the RELIANT checklist.

RESULTS: We developed the RELIANT checklist that is comprised by 7 dimensions covering perspectives, objective factors, meeting dynamics, personal interest, previous experience, context, and cognitive biases. The target users of this tool are HTA practitioners.

The goal is to acknowledge and elucidate the implicit factors present in the HTA deliberative process for pharmaceuticals and therefore to improve the deliberation by making it more rationale, impartial, legitimate and transparent.

The checklist is aimed as a practical tool to be used prospectively, and around the deliberation prior to reaching a final recommendation.

CONCLUSIONS: There is scarcity of tools accounting for the existence of implicit factors in the HTA deliberative process. Given the lack of checklists in the literature accounting for these factors, the RELIANT checklist fills a vacuum in this area since it is the first tool to support the HTA deliberative process by guiding the HTA practitioner to reflect on the implicit factors that may be influencing the process.