Intended for healthcare professionals
Health Technology Assessment in China
China has made considerable progress in implementing universal health coverage but healthcare budgets are under pressure from a rapidly ageing population and fast changing health technologies. Health technology assessment (HTA) therefore has increasing importance in healthcare decision making to control expenditure and ensure the national health insurance system is getting good value for money.
This collection of articles examines how the HTA process has evolved in China to decide which new treatments should be funded and help negotiate an affordable price, as well as identifying those that should be discontinued. The country’s approaches to challenges such as lack of locally applicable data and expertise provide lessons for other countries wanting to make greater use of HTA.
Use of health technology assessment in drug reimbursement decisions in China
China has made substantial progress in using health technology assessment, but more effort should be made to improve the quality of evidence, strengthen capacity, and enhance transparency, say Wen Chen and colleagues
Health technology assessment to inform decision making in China: progress, challenges, and sustainability
Yingyao Chen and colleagues examine China’s health technology assessment system and suggest how it can be strengthened
Using health technology assessment to inform insurance reimbursement of high technology medicines in China: an example of cancer immunotherapy
Yingyao Chen and colleagues examine what can be learnt from China’s approach to funding expensive high technology medicines with uncertain long term benefit.
How health technology reassessment can support disinvestment in China’s national drug reimbursement list
A requirement to assess actual use of reimbursed medicines would enable transparent, documented, evidence based decisions on disinvestment, say Lizheng Shiand colleagues
Use of real world data to improve drug coverage decisions in China
Wen Wang and colleagues discuss the rationale and propose a framework for using real world evidence to support coverage decisions in Chinese setting
This collection was proposed by China Medical Board and commissioned by The BMJ. The BMJ retained full editorial control over external peer review, editing, and publication of these articles. Article handling fees (including printing, distribution, and open access fees) are funded by the China Medical Board. The lead editors on this collection were Di Wang and Kamran Abassi for The BMJ.
