Health evidence reviews

Health technology assessments

Health evidence reviews use a research method called health technology assessment. This research is done to help determine what health care technologies, services, and models of care are suitable and sustainable for a given population.

Health evidence reviews can capture information on effectiveness, safety, cost-effectiveness, real-world practices and budget impact, as well as the ethical, social, legal and policy implications on the health care system.

Improving health care services

Health evidence reviews are used to inform health system decision-makers and improve planning. Reviews provide balanced evidence, critical analysis, and an Alberta perspective to help decision-makers tackle problems in the health care system, and make progress on Alberta’s health care priorities.

Reviews examine how health care services can be delivered better in a certain part of the health care system, or for a specific disease or condition. This is preferred to evaluating individual technologies and services for adoption.

Reviews provide evidence for a health system decision-maker or planner who is willing and able to use the results to make change.

Health evidence review framework

Read the 2017 Health Evidence Review Framework

How health evidence review topics are identified

Open nomination

Health care professionals, planners, and stakeholders who need evidence to tackle a health system problem or task should contact us to request a review.

Targeted consultation

The Ministry of Health consults planners and decision-makers who are working on the health care system’s priorities to identify problems or challenges that could benefit from a health evidence review.

Since 2018, proposals have been requested that focus on working with stakeholders to provide evidence required to create innovative care models, disease pathways and/or transitions of care.

These proposals are screened by representatives from the Ministry of Health and Alberta Health Services, and then validated by a committee of senior health system leaders.

Assessing existing inefficiencies

Health evidence reviews use peer-reviewed studies, reports, interviews, as well as data collected across the health care system to identify duplication, waste, gaps in care, or areas of low efficiency that could be improved using an evidence-informed approach.

Screening and prioritization for review

Every topic identified is considered to determine if it will benefit from an Alberta health evidence review. The selection process tries to answer the following questions:

Is the review topic considered high-priority for the Alberta government and health care system?
Will the review have a wide reaching and or significant impact on how care is delivered?
Is there pressure for change?
Is there willingness to change?
Is there a health system decision-maker who will use review results to affect change?
What is the likelihood that change will happen?

Health evidence review partners

The Ministry of Health collaborates with these internationally recognized health technology assessments experts to conduct reviews in an arms-length capacity:

Health evidence review products

Every review is designed to meet the needs of the health system client. Reviews can be customized to provide a range of evidence and information, including:

systematic reviews of effectiveness and safety
cost-effectiveness analyses
budget impact analyses
real-world evidence
implementation feasibility assessments
environmental scans
policy analyses

The conclusions presented in the reports are solely those of the partner organizations that produced the reports and do not represent the policies or position of the Alberta government or any other agency. Updates are provided when available.

Advice from high-level health care leaders

The Alberta Advisory Committee on Health Technologies provides direction and a broader health system perspective to Alberta’s health evidence reviews.

Members of the committee include senior leaders from the Ministry of Health and Alberta Health Services (co-chairs), as well as senior representatives from the Alberta Medical Association, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta, the College and Association of Registered Nurses of Alberta, and Canada’s Medical Technology Companies.

The committee:

advises on whether potential review topics are timely and a good fit for health system priorities
provides the perspectives of leaders from across the health care system on how best to use review findings to achieve change

Knowledge translation support

The Ministry of Health can help clients communicate review findings to relevant audiences and stakeholders to build support for change. The ministry and its health evidence review partners offer customized reports and summary documents, presentation and publicity materials, educational tools and seminars, and other knowledge translation supports for specific audiences.

Implementation supports

Every review is selected, planned, and conducted with careful consideration for whether and how the results can be used to inform improvements in the health care system. Before starting any review, there must be a strong degree of certainty that the review findings can and will be used to affect change.

As part of the health evidence review process, the Ministry of Health and the partner conducting the review work with the client and other health system stakeholders to understand:

possible outcomes from the review
how these outcomes could be used to achieve changes in care delivery (possible implementation approaches)
whether change is feasible
what impacts this change could have on Albertans and the health care system

If requested, an optimal implementation approach can be proposed and developed using information obtained through evidence gathering, data modelling, health system capacity analysis, and consultation.