History and structure
Osteba was established in June 1992. It is accountable to the Planning and Evaluation Directorate of the Department of Health in the Basque Country.

Osteba is funded from the Health Department budget. Advisory committees provide scientific support and identify priorities in a structured way. OSTEBA works in close collaboration with epidemiology research units and the Drug Information Centre.

Osteba's reports are used by the Health Department for policy making and by hospitals, clinicians and private care providers to improve medical practice and the organization of healthcare delivery.

Mission

• To contribute to the appropriate use of existing and future health technology
• To provide information on safety, efficacy, effectiveness, accessibility, and equity about different technologies, as required by decision makers in the Basque Country.

How OSTEBA works
Most of the work is conducted in-house by the expert panels and external professionals who may be physicians, economists, epidemiologists, lawyers, or ethicists usually coming from the Basque Ministry of Health, universities, the public health system, and private practices. These groups conduct systematic reviews and cost analyses and use expert panels as peer reviewers.

Osteba has it's own early warning system 'Sortek' linked to the prioritization process for assessment and is co-ordinating the Spanish Network for New and Emerging Technologies, 'GENTECS'. We also lead the scientific committee of the Spanish National Guidelines Clearinghouse 'Guiasalud'. Osteba is currently chairing EuroScan.

Commissioned research projects have been granted every year since 1997.These projects are conducted by multidisciplinary and multicentric teams under the guidance of Osteba.
Osteba is member of the following networks: INAHTA, HTA-i, EUnetHTA, EuroScan, G-I-N, ADAPT, AEETS, AUnETS, PHGEN and HEN and collaborates in several European Union projects.

Dissemination activities
Osteba publishes reports, technical documents, brief reports, and a newsletter "Osteba Berriak". These are disseminated by direct mailing and the Web site. Press releases are produced for each report.
Osteba also gives courses and lectures to clinicians and policy makers, and collaborates in several MSc and PhD programs. In this way, Osteba coordinates a series of training activities on the methodology of health services research and assessment.

Current projects (a selection)

• Spanish information network for identification, prioritization and early assessment of new and emerging health technologies 
• Spanish information network for the identification, prioritization and delisting of obsolete technologies in hospitals
• Monitoring systems, methodological approach
• Optimizing the information sources to be consulted in the HTA agencies
• Analysis of costs and results of telemedicine implementation in primary and specialized health care services 
• Clinical Practice Guideline on Diabetes type I 
• Recommendations on the treatment of children with hyperactivity disorder
• Recommendations for the rational implementation of Genomics in the Basque Health System
• Recommendations on the psycho-educative interventions in first psychotic episodes
• Clinical Practice Guidelines in Primary Care
• Improvement of the quality of Cancer registries in the Basque Country

Future plans

• To promote the evaluative culture and evidence-based medicine among policy makers and clinicians 
• To intensify collaborative projects at a local and international level 
• To improve dissemination strategies and the impact of the HTA products 
• To reinforce links with authorization, safety and quality improvement policies 
• To improve the process of developing and implementing CPG in the Health Care System of the Basque Country 
• To support new initiatives in HTA developing countries
• To assess the impact of innovations in Health Care Systems
• To develop methodological tools for the assessment of new and obsolete technologies
• To develop methodological tools for the implementation of monitoring systems