OP54 The Early Detection And Warning System ‘SINTESIS-New Technologies’: A Horizon Scanning Experience In Spain

Abstract

Introduction

SINTESIS-new technologies is the early warning system for new and emerging technologies of the Agencia de Evaluación de Tecnologías Sanitarias, Instituto de Salud Carlos III. SINTESIS is part of the Action Plan for the Early Detection of New and Emerging Technologies of the Spanish Network of Health Technology Assessment Agencies (RedETS). In RedETS, four agencies are responsible for the identification of innovative technologies. These agencies have been collaborating since 2016 according to the early awareness methods contained in the EuroScan Methods Toolkit. SINTESIS focuses on secondary information sources (i.e., experts and literature). This study describes the experience of SINTESIS in identifying and filtering new technologies in recent years.

Methods

Retrospective analysis of all new and emerging technologies notified by SINTESIS to RedETS since 2018. Technologies were analyzed on a year-by-year basis for their source of information, the clinical specialties involved, and whether technologies found in the identification phase were selected for further assessment.

Results

Between 2018–2020, SINTESIS identified 69 emerging and new technologies. Most of the information came from medical press news (35%), and medical web news (22%); other sources included experts (15%), licensing news search (12%), general press (12%), and scientific websites (6%). Almost 37 technologies (54%) were selected for further analysis. Reasons for exclusion included too early identification of technologies/prototypes without enough evidence (52%), technologies already implemented (28%), overlapping technologies between agencies (17%), and not being medical technologies (3%).

Conclusions

Experience suggests that news sections of general and medical journals, websites, and expert consultation are useful sources to identify new and emerging health technologies. The main limitation is that the technologies identified are often at too early a stage of development for further assessment. SINTESIS contributes, within a national horizon scanning system with other agencies, to broaden the information sources and provide useful data on early awareness of innovative technologies. Further studies are needed to assess the impact of emerging technologies detection on healthcare delivery.