Methods of Evaluation in Health Technologies

Health technology is a broad term used to describe scientific innovations in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease. As the World Health Organization maintains, the effective use and distribution of health technologies relies in part on scientific methods of evaluation. Evaluation techniques include both quantitative and qualitative research methods that investigate the medical, scientific, social and legal aspects of health technologies.

Context

• Health technology evaluation, also known as health technology assessment, is the systematic study of effectiveness, cost, social consequences and ethical implications of medical devices, procedures and policies. Evaluations are conducted by researchers from a range of disciplines, including medical clinicians, lab technicians, health administrators and social scientists. A statement published by Oxford University in 2009 describes health evaluations as a "bridge" between medical evidence and policy making that helps health service providers better structure care and distribute resources.

Quantitative Methods

• Quantitative methods in health technology evaluation gather and analyze numerical data about a particular research question. Quantitative methods include survey instruments, lab analysis and direct observation, where data is assigned a numerical value that is then used to generate a statistical description. Quantitative methods are useful for answering questions about the efficacy or cost-effectiveness of a health treatment or device, but are limited with respect to providing information on how practitioners and patients engage with a given technology.

Qualitative Methods

• While quantitative methods provide statistical information, qualitative methods offer rich descriptions about human behaviors, ideas and reasoning. In a 1998 article on health evaluation methods, social scholars from the University of Nottingham state that qualitative tools are especially useful in the early stages of a research project, as they help investigators refine the research question. Additionally, qualitative methods help health policy makers identify areas for improvement. Qualitative methods in health technology evaluation include participant observation, interviews and the analysis of conversations, archival material and patient records. These techniques aim to identify subjective reactions to health technologies, and elicit information related to health beliefs, trust, concern and expectations on the part of practitioners and patients.

Evaluations and Ethics

• For all quantitative and qualitative studies that use human participants in health technology research, investigators have a legal and ethical obligation to protect study subjects. Research ethics are an important component of health evaluations, and directly affect the methods investigators use to gather information. Researchers ensure that participation in a health technology study does not harm the health or well-being of the participants, and that all private health information is kept confidential. Ethics structure the way that researchers recruit study participants, as well as how information in collected and analyzed.