History and Structure
Research: IECS aims to conduct and promote research and evaluation projects, generating scientific and epidemiological knowledge to respond to local demands. We conduct clinical, epidemiological, and health services research, economic evaluations, HTA studies, systematic reviews, qualitative research, and validation of instruments and cross cultural adaptation of questionnaires. IECS hosts the Argentine Cochrane Center, member of the Iberoamerican Cochrane network.
Technical Support: IECS collaborates with public and non-governmental organizations and private institutions providing technical assistance to identify strategies to improve accessibility and quality of health care, to promote rational utilization of health technology, and to reduce unnecessary costs and expenditures.
Education: The Master of Clinical and Health Care Effectiveness is the main educational activity of IECS. This degree program of the University of Buenos Aires is held with the participation of faculty from the Harvard School of Public Health and the Pan-American Health Organization.

IECS is a Clinical Epidemiology Research and Training Center (CERTC) from LatinCLEN (INCLEN TRUST). Other activities offered at IECS include postgraduate courses in research methods, economic evaluations, management of healthcare organizations, and quality of health care. It is also the Argentine collaborative network of Nevalat, the Latin American network of Economic Evaluation and Decision Making, led by the Center of Health Economics at the University of York, UK and Soikos Institute at Barcelona, Spain.

IECS developed activities of education, research, and technical support in these areas:
- HTA and economic evaluation
- Healthcare policy and research
- Quality of life
- Healthcare quality improvement
- Epidemiology and biostatistics
- Maternal and child health research.

Mission
The IECS is an independent, non-profit organization, created by professionals from the medical and social sciences devoted to research, education, and technical support. Our main goal is to improve efficiency, equity, quality, and sustainability of healthcare systems and policies.

How IECS works
Our publications are subject to an internal peer review process and to an external process in the case of peer-reviewed journal article submissions or scientific meeting presentations.
In producing HTA documents, a research question is assigned to each of our lead researchers. To review the process, a weekly meeting is held with the full team and the two responsible for HTA at IECS. Teams are composed of a junior and a senior researcher. Each document is peer reviewed by the HTA committee composed of the two directors and two senior researchers. For many of our internal documents, we involve external experts in the peer review process and feedback.
HTA documents are classified based on depth and comprehensiveness, as follows:

• HTA Documents include a complete evaluation of a technology, considering its efficacy, effectiveness, security, cost effectiveness, and impact on the local health system. The reports are based on systematic literature searches and classification and synthesis of the evidence.
• Rapid Response Reports constitute a rapid response to an information request. The literature search focuses mainly on secondary sources (eg, HTA documents by other agencies, systematic reviews, meta-analyses, clinical guidelines, health coverage policies) and the original primary research studies. These are not necessarily exhaustive systematic reviews on the subject, systematic searches of primary studies, or our own elaboration or analysis of data.
• Brief Technical Reports are preliminary evaluations of a particular health technology, focusing mainly on efficacy, effectiveness, and safety. They are based on literature searches, classification, and synthesis of evidence and are not necessarily our own elaboration of data or analysis of local data. The information could serve as a preliminary evaluation for a full HTA Document.

Dissemination activities
IECS publications are available in electronic and printed formats. We disseminate the reports via our web page. Those who register in our database have free access to abstracts (in Spanish and English). PDF full text versions are accessible only to our consortium of affiliated institutions, or if requested for academic purposes. New reports are announced by e-mail. We are developing an electronic newsletter that will also inform readers about the HTA reports.

Current projects (a selection)

• Low back pain treatment using radiofrequency techniques
• Effectiveness of laparoscopic techniques for common bile duct stone disease
• Radiofrequency catheter ablation in treating cardiac arrhythmias
• Usefulness of SPECT in studying Parkinson's disease
• Global postural re-education technique in treating scoliosis
• Usefulness of proBNP peptide in the diagnosis and prognosis of heart failure
• Cost effectiveness of heptavalent pneumococcal vaccine for infants in Argentina
• Cost effectiveness of smoking cessation treatment coverage policies in Argentina 
• Sectoral cost effectiveness analysis of a package of interventions to reduce cardiovascular disease in the public sector of Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Developing a healthcare cost database for HTA and economic evaluation in Argentina
• Effectiveness of a clinical practice guideline (CPG) to improve preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis (PAP) in public hospitals of Buenos Aires city
• EQ-5D social values in the Argentine population 
• Generalizability of health economic evaluations in Latin America
• Role of Cochrane systematic reviews in HTA in Argentina

Future plans
We are developing informational material for health system users (individuals and patients) to expand the resource allocation decision making process and health coverage policies to different stakeholders.