APRIL 2025
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In a context of increasingly better but more expensive medical innovations, it is important to strengthen evidence-based decision-making. The creation of ANEFiTS plays a key role in beginning to address this gap.
What are the proven benefits of a new drug, vaccine, test, procedure, or biomedical device? How many patients might be candidates for its use? And what would be the estimated efficiency and economic impact of providing it? For almost 25 years, since the beginning of the IECS, we have worked to promote Health Technology Assessment (HTA), which seeks to provide objective answers to these types of questions, which have a direct potential impact on the health of populations, the allocation of resources, and the sustainability of health systems.
The institutional commitment to ETESA has been reflected in substantive achievements, such as participation in the creation of RedETSA, our designation as PAHO/WHO Collaborating Center and the elaboration of more than 1.000 technical documentsThis year, the organization of the HTAi Annual Meeting in Buenos Aires, in a context where the increasing complexity and cost of health innovations reinforces the need for evidence-informed decisions.
The recent announcement of the creation of the National Agency for the Evaluation of Health Technology Financing (ANEFiTS) in Argentina This could begin to settle a debt our country has owed for many years. The creation of an ETESA agency is a key step toward obtaining assessments. objective that guarantee treatments safe, effective, accessible and based on scientific evidence by the Argentine Government.
This agency, like all ETESA agencies worldwide, must take and report difficult decisions which will affect broad sectors of society. That is why it is important that both the newly formed ANEFiTS and its decisions have the higher level of legitimacy. This implies establish appropriate mechanisms to guarantee transparency and rigor in the creation of the agency, the definition of its areas of responsibility, the selection of its authorities, and the legitimacy and involvement of the different actors in the evaluation and decision-making process.
Until the details are officially published in the Official Gazette, many questions remain regarding its organization and operation. For example, how will ANEFiTS be integrated into the coverage decision-making processes in the different health subsystems? What will be the mechanisms to ensure the involvement of patients, users, payers, professionals, producers, academics, and other relevant stakeholders? What will their [actions] be like? link with the ANMAT?, what will be the main ones criteria that will guide the selection process What about the technologies to be evaluated and coverage decisions? How will the scientific rigor of the working methodology be guaranteed? Will it be involved in the development of clinical practice guidelines? What interaction will it have with the judicial system and what role will it play in the judicialization of health coverage?
We celebrate that Argentina is beginning to travel this path in search of the continuous improvement of the health systemensuring that medical innovations are successful accessible and beneficial for the entire community. That is what we have been striving for for almost a quarter of a century.
If you are interested in this topic, we invite you to join the free webinar we will be holding on Wednesday, April 23rd at 14 PM on: “Health technologies and coverage decisions: a necessary debate for the present of the Argentine health system”. Register here