UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

We need to talk about values: a proposed framework for the articulation of normative reasoning in health technology assessment

Charlton, Victoria; Distefano, Michael; Mitchell, Polly; Morrell, Liz; Rand, Leah; Badano, Gabriele; Baker, Rachel; ... Wester, Gry; + view all (2023) We need to talk about values: a proposed framework for the articulation of normative reasoning in health technology assessment. Health Economics, Policy and Law pp. 1-20. 10.1017/S1744133123000038. (In press). Green open access

[thumbnail of Charlton et al 2023 Need to Talk.pdf]
Preview
PDF
Charlton et al 2023 Need to Talk.pdf - Published Version

Download (417kB) | Preview

Abstract

It is acknowledged that health technology assessment (HTA) is an inherently value-based activity that makes use of normative reasoning alongside empirical evidence. But the language used to conceptualise and articulate HTA's normative aspects is demonstrably unnuanced, imprecise, and inconsistently employed, undermining transparency and preventing proper scrutiny of the rationales on which decisions are based. This paper – developed through a cross-disciplinary collaboration of 24 researchers with expertise in healthcare priority-setting – seeks to address this problem by offering a clear definition of key terms and distinguishing between the types of normative commitment invoked during HTA, thus providing a novel conceptual framework for the articulation of reasoning. Through application to a hypothetical case, it is illustrated how this framework can operate as a practical tool through which HTA practitioners and policymakers can enhance the transparency and coherence of their decision-making, while enabling others to hold them more easily to account. The framework is offered as a starting point for further discussion amongst those with a desire to enhance the legitimacy and fairness of HTA by facilitating practical public reasoning, in which decisions are made on behalf of the public, in public view, through a chain of reasoning that withstands ethical scrutiny.

Type: Article
Title: We need to talk about values: a proposed framework for the articulation of normative reasoning in health technology assessment
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1017/S1744133123000038
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1744133123000038
Language: English
Additional information: © National Institutes of Health and the Author(s), 2023. To the extent this is a work of the US Government, it is not subject to copyright protection within the United States. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Keywords: healthcare priority-setting, ethics, social values, moral values, practical public reasoning
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Political Science
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10186639
Downloads since deposit
0Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item