OBJECTIVES: Systematic literature reviews (SLR) are often required for health technology assessment (HTA) submissions to provide a comprehensive analysis of the existing evidence for a specific intervention and its comparator(s). The objective of this study was to compare the SLR requirements for reimbursement submissions across the United Kingdom (UK) and Ireland.

METHODS: Reimbursement submission guidelines from HTA agencies in the UK and Ireland (NICE [England], AWMSG [Wales], NCPE [Ireland], and SMC [Scotland]) were reviewed and compared.

RESULTS: All four sources searched require an SLR of clinical data, three of which expect a critical appraisal of the included studies. Notably, AWMSG guidelines do not mention any requirement for critical appraisal of clinical data. An SLR of economic models, including critical appraisal, is mandated by NICE alone. NICE and SMC are the only HTA agencies assessed that explicitly require an SLR of healthcare resource use (HCRU) and cost data. Although NCPE does not specifically require an SLR for this purpose, it specifies that costs must be identified using a systematic method. Both NICE and NCPE require an SLR for utility data. Additionally, SMC and AWMSG require a utility SLR when utility values for economic models are sourced from published literature.

CONCLUSIONS: SLR requirements among HTA agencies vary within the UK and Ireland. All of the agencies require a clinical SLR, with a critical appraisal of included studies expected by three agencies. The requirement for economic SLRs varies among the UK HTA bodies, with NICE being the only agency to mandate an economic model SLR. Given the variations between UK HTA agencies, the SLR requirements for each must be considered when preparing for a specific UK HTA process.