Austrian Institute for Health Technology Assessment (AIHTA): New Scientific Advisory Board

The AIHTA, Austria's independent body for scientific decision support in health care, appoints new scientific advisory board.

The AIHTA (resp. the predecessor institution LBI-HTA) has been providing the scientific basis for decisions in favour of an efficient and appropriate use of resources in the Austrian health care system for more than 15 years now. The focus is on policy-relevant and application-oriented research. The results can quickly be put into practice by the institutional partners (Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection, the Federation of Austrian Social Insurances, the nine regional health funds). External evaluations and a scientific advisory board composed of European experts form a central component of the AIHTA's quality assurance. The first meeting of the newly constituted advisory board took place on April 30th 2021 in an online meeting.

The members of the scientific advisory board are independent experts from across Europe with a wealth of combined experience and knowledge in the field of public health, health services research and high-tech medicine. They not only provide the AIHTA team with targeted input and feedback on completed and current projects, but also support the AIHTA team with methodological guidance based on their expertise. The Board consists of the following persons and is appointed for five years:

1. Nicola MAGRINI, MD has been Director of AIFA (Italian Medicines Agency) since 2020. Prior to this, he was Head of the WHO's Essential Medicines Oncology (EML) Division.

2. Priv. Doz. Stefan SAUERLAND, MD is Head of the Department of Non-Drug Interventions at the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG). He was already a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the predecessor institution (LBI-HTA).

3. Frank HULSTAERT, MD, MSc is Head of the Health Services Research and Pragmatic Clinical Trials Programme at the Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre (KCE).

4. Luciana BALLINI, MSc is Senior Researcher in Agenzia Regione Emilia-Romagna (RER) and Chair of the EUnetHTA Plenary Assembly.

5. Prof. Signe FLOTTORP, MD is Research Director of the Cluster for Assessment of Interventions in the Department of Health Care and Implementation Research at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPHNO).

Enquiries to: Ozren Sehic (Science Communication), Ozren.Sehic@aihta.at