The ethical assessment in HTA reports: the development and the evolution of the ethics consultation by Institute of Bioethics of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome (Italy)

The ethical assessment in HTA reports: the development and the evolution of the ethics consultation by Institute of Bioethics of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome (Italy) The ethical assessment in an HTA report concerns both the ethical issues raised by the technology itself and the ethical issues that are related to the HTA process. Even though it is listed as one of the objectives of HTA, in practice the integration of this dimension into HTA reports has been often limited. In the Italian context, already characterized by a certain delay in the diffusion of HTA, the Institute of Bioethics of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Rome, Italy) tried from 2007 to fill this gap, beginning to integrate ethical analyses into HTA reports in an activity of consulting for third parties. The contribution intends to show the results of the ethics consultation in various HTA reports from 2007 to 2010. The following elements will be presented: 1. to describe the methodologies/procedures used to incorporate ethical analyses into HTA reports; 2. to review the set of ethical questions dealt with; 3. to show the resources involved; 4. to analyse the difficulties arose in the assessment. Finally, the perspective is to set up an HTA ethics consultation within a broad ethics consultation service by Institute of Bioethics of UCSC.