"In our efforts to serve decision makers we should remember that most decisions on the use of health technologies are made at the clinical level."

History and structure
DACEHTA (formerly DIHTA) was established under the auspices of the Ministry of Health in 1997 as an independent, state-financed institute in the National Board of Health. DIHTA changed name to DACEHTA due to a merger in 2001 with the Danish Hospital Evaluation Centre.
The inter-disciplinary professional staff represents fields such as medicine, public health, economics, sociology, and political science. The centre has a Strategic Advisory Board that consists of representatives from the regions and municipalities, the Faculties of Health Sciences, the Danish Agency for Science Technology and Innovation, Ministry of Health and Prevention etc. The aim of the Strategic Advisory Board is to develop and coordinate the use of HTA’s in Denmark, including promoting the use of evidence-based decisions across sectors.

Mission
DACEHTA's overall mission regarding HTA is to implement the National Strategy for Health Technology Assessment. The strategy was developed by major health care stakeholders and published in 2009. The principal objective is to establish HTA as a solid and comprehensive basis for decision-making and to integrate the principles of HTA at all levels of health care. The strategy aims at ensuring that HTA is integrated with operational and planning procedures - centrally, regionally, and locally - at institutional, political, administrative, clinical, and academic levels.

How DACEHTA works
DACEHTA has a broad approach to HTA - focusing on organizational and social aspects as well as on clinical and economic effectiveness. DACEHTA puts an emphasis on creating close links between HTA and decision-making by participating in and contributing to the national, regional and local "policy - HTA - policy" loops.  DACEHTA uses ad hoc expert groups, commissioning mechanisms to produce and support relevant HTA projects. DACEHTA also seeks to develop a network of clinical and research environments that have HTA capabilities. External peer review is incorporated as a routine to assure quality of draft reports.


Dissemination activities
Furthering implementation of HTA is explicitly included among DACEHTA's obligations. DACEHTA's e-mail services, newsletters, the "Health Technology Assessment Handbook", and Publications database are means to ensure that HTA-relevant information is brought to the attention of decision-makers at all levels of health care.
Most often the mere dissemination of HTA results is not enough to secure their integration into policy making and clinical practice. Thus DACEHTA seeks to expand collaboration with the "end users" of HTA results.


Current projects (a selection)

• HTA on patient education
• HTA on prevention of heart failure with ICD
• HTA on Back Pain
• HTA on follow-up in gynaecological cancer patients
• Screening for haemoglobin disorders among pregnant immigrants
  

A full list of DACEHTA's ongoing and completed projects can be found at www.dacehta.dk.


Since January 2006 DACEHTA is hosting European Network for HTA’s (EUnetHTA) secretariat.


Future plans
It is DACEHTA's vision that all major national health policies are based on considerations related to HTA.
Besides participating in EUnetHTA, DACEHTA will continue to support and participate in other international collaboration such as INAHTA, HTAi, Nordic collaboration, and the Cochrane Collaboration, where appropriate.