"HTA to support health care decisions".

History and structure
The Finnish Office for Health Technology Assessment, Finohta, was established in 1995. It is situated in the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and financed by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. Finohta's office comprises 28 persons, supported by 10 permanent consultants. Our collaboration network consists of a 10-member Scientific Committee, a 28-member Advisory Board, a Network for Managed Uptake of Medical Methods and dozens of experts yearly involved in projects.

Mission
The goal is to promote the effectiveness of Finnish health care. Finohta concentrates on technologies that deal with major health problems or are of economic importance for the country.
How Finohta works

Finohta has three main modes of operation:

• Finohta answers questions about the effectiveness, safety, cost and other aspects of health technologies asked by the Ministry of Health or health care providers, such as hospital districts.
• Finohta acts as a national clearinghouse for health technology assessments (international and domestic), providing Finnish-language summaries of core foreign reports.
• Finohta promotes national HTA research by training and methodological support.
• The main principle in all activities is close co-operation with the health care professionals and different organizational entities in the healthcare sector and related sectors.

Dissemination activities
Finohta disseminates information on its own activities and publications through the website at http://www.thl.fi/finohta and the electronic newsletter Impakti. The Ohtanen database includes basic information on international HTAs as well as Finnish summaries based on them. It is also possible to subscribe to a mailing list for reports recently added in Ohtanen.
Furthermore, the staff of Finohta submits articles to professional journals, and organizes meetings, conferences, and courses.


Current projects (a selection)

• Noninvasive mechanical cough assistance
• CT colonography using CO2 insufflation´
• Continuous infusion of local anesthetic into surgical wounds for pain relief
• Treatment of uterine fibroids with uterine artery embolisation
• Azacitidine in the treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes
• Cost-effectiveness of screening for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms
• Cost-effectiveness of screening patients exposed to methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus infection
• Cochrane review update "Antibiotics for acute maxillary sinusitis"
• Cochrane review update "Pit and fissure sealants versus fluoride varnishes for preventing dental decay in children and adolescents"
• Evaluation of implementation of foetal screening
• HospiCaseY project - A user-oriented hospital space
• Early assessment of new interventional procedures
• EUnetHTA (European network for HTA)

Future plans

• To recruit new HTA questions from health care providers and decision makers
• To support implementation of assessment results in practice ´
• To monitor changes in current practices