Diretrizes Metodológicas: Avaliação de Desempenho de Tecnologias em Saúde

In recent years, significant advances have been registered in the health area with the discovery of new technologies. These advances have been accompanied by a rise in treatment costs and have put health spending among the largest expenditures of public and family systems around the world. Despite the undeniable scientific advances, many health technologies launched in the international market do not have the expected benefits and, in some situations, still introduce iatrogenies. In order to respond to the need to measure, evaluate and select the products, equipment, medicines and health procedures that merit use in health systems, scientific methods have been developed to assist the process of incorporating health technologies. A set of standardized analyzes of effectiveness, safety, effectiveness, efficiency and costs has contributed in a relevant way to the processes that incorporate new technologies. However, post-incorporation studies published in the international literature that present disturbing results are not rare in that many of these technologies, when used in real life, do not actually have the benefits reported by manufacturers. For this reason, many challenges still permeate the little explored process of evaluating the performance of the technologies available and the consequent need to establish a process of divestment and reinvestment in health.