Background Practice-based health technology assessment (PB-HTA) has the potential to improve the quality, safety and value of patient care by synthesising evidence to provide timely guidance for clinical practice, policy, formulary management, operations, and purchasing decisions. Hospital-based HTA centres are active in Western Europe and Canada, but less so in the US, and some operate in conjunction with formal evidence-based guideline programmes.

Objectives/Goals To actively engage leaders of PB-HTA to discuss strengths and limitations, lessons learned, and the role of PB-HTA in the development, dissemination, and implementation of guidance within health care systems.

Target Group/Suggested Audience Senior executives/administrators, and clinical policy, quality and safety leaders in healthcare organisations and networks who develop, implement and measure performance related to clinical guidance.

Description of Aession and Speaker Topics Dr. Wyer, who leads a PB-HTA capacity building programme for health care organisations at the NYAM SEBHC, will engage the panellists in a discussion of their experiences leading PB-HTA efforts at Kaiser Permanente (Ms. Koster), the Veterans Administration (Dr. Helfand), Penn Medicine (Dr. Umscheid) and the HTA unit at the Catholic University Hospital in Rome, Italy (Dr. Marchetti). The discussion will address the potential for guidance developed by PB-HTA centres to impact the quality, safety and value of patient care, similarities and differences in national and international efforts, and future directions for the field.