Title: Update of the literature review for the Health Technology Assessment Programme of methods and their use in assessing the impact from health research programmes
Funder: Department of Health (England)

Abstract: Background: Hanney et al [1] assessed the impact of the first 10 years of the NHS HTA programme from its inception in 1993 to June 2003 and identified factors associated with HTA research that are making an impact (Health Technology Assessment 2007 Vol.11 No.53 see also Raftery et al 2009 [2]). That assessment included a review of the literature on the methods for assessing the impact from health research the search for which was conducted in 2005. Aims and objective:Review the literature on published research studies assessing the impact from programmes of health research including both methods and findings.Our objective is to update and extend the 2007 literature review of methods used to assess impact to include:a.Summary and critique of the range of approaches used in health research impact assessment; collation of quantitative findings from studies assessing the impact of multi-project programmesb.Particular focus on a) the critical social science literature and b) developing approaches that potentially might be especially relevant to the HTA programme (i.e. studies focusing on monetised benefits and on the impact of new trials on systematic reviews) c.Analysis of different options for taking impact assessment forward in the NIHR/HTA programme including options drawing on routinely collected data.Search strategy:The updated search would broadly replicate the approach used in the initial search conducted in July 2005. The databases searched are therefore likely to include: EMBASE OVID MEDLINE(R) In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations CINAHL ECONLIT HMIC (Health Management Information Consortium) Web of Knowledge (incorporating Science Citation Index and Social Science Citation Index) and Cochrane Library (including Health Technology Assessment Database and NHS Economic Evaluation Database).The search terms used originally are set out in the 2007 report and would also be replicated as far as possible in a search that would be from July 2005. Our specialist librarian would check to ensure that relevant index terms added to the different databases since 2005 were also included. Furthermore because the field is progressing so rapidly we will undertake ‘snowballing’ searching from key seminal publications using Google Scholar (highly sensitive but not specific) to identify recent publications from those seminal texts. Project duration: Eight months. Expertise in the team: The collaborators in this research proposal possess extensive methodological experience along with considerable expertise in relation to the assessment of impact. Two co-applicants of the proposed research were authors of the original 2007 report. The co-applicants encompass specialities including analysis of HTA programme outputs assessment of impact using the payback framework and more broadly evaluation and improvement of clinical services implementation of evidence-based practice and diffusion of innovations and research impact. References:1. Hanney S Buxton M Green C Coulson D Raftery J. An assessment of the impact of the NHS Health Technology Assessment Programme. Health Technology Assessment 2007;11(53)2.Raftery J Hanney S Green C Buxton M. Assessing the impact of Englands National Health Service R&D Health Technology Assessment program using the payback approach. Int J Technol Assess Health Care 2009;25(1):1-5.


Research activity codes: 8.4 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGIES (HEALTH SERVICES)
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE