In late December 2018, the European HTA agency, EUnetHTA, announced the ultimate project plan of the project OTCA19 - “Screening for osteoporosis in the general population.”
This project is being executed by the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG), with the co-author being the Swiss Network for HTA (SNHTA). The dedicated reviewers are Catalan Agency for Health Quality and Assessment of (AQuAS, Spain), Austrian Healthcare (GÖG) and Romanian National School of Public Health, Management and Professional Development (NSPHMPD).
The research questions is whether screening for osteoporosis in the general population using clinical risk assessment tools (e.g., Fracture Risk Assessment Tool, [FRAX]) and/or densitometry (e.g., dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry [DXA], quantitative computed tomography [qCT]/quantitative ultrasonography [qUS] of bone) followed by pharmacological and/or non-pharmacological measures to prevent osteoporotic fractures is more effective and/or safer than no screening in the general population.
The HTA Core Model Application for Rapid Relative Effectiveness Assessments (REA, v 4.2) will be followed for the selection of assessment elements.
The assessment phase is planned to end in June 2019, while the final version of this rapid assessment is expected to be published in mid-September, 2019.
See the whole plan in English here.
EUnetHTA also published the experts’ comments, which can be found here.
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