Paris, France
History and Missions
The French National Authority for Health (Haute Autorité de santé or HAS) was founded by law in 2004 and became operational on January 1st, 2005. It is an independent public scientific body working alongside public authorities to inform policy decisions and with health and social care professionals to optimize practices, organizations and services. It also ensures a patient-focused approach aimed to reinforce decision-making capacity for users.
HAS is tasked with further developing quality in health and social care. Its three main missions are:
- Assessing and appraising pharmaceuticals, medical devices and procedures for inclusion on the national reimbursement lists
- Recommending best practices for health and social care professionals and elaborating vaccination and public health guidelines
- Measuring and improving the quality of care delivered in health and social care organizations, as well as office-based settings
How HAS Works
HAS is governed by a board of eight members, responsible for setting strategic priorities and policies. The Board Chair is appointed by the President of the French Republic.
There are nine specialist committees, each chaired by a Board member, that are responsible for examining the dossiers that fall within their area of expertise.
More precisely, HTA dossiers can be examined by four HAS specialist committees: Transparency Committee (for the clinical assessment of medicinal products), Economic and Public Health Committee (for economic assessments of health products and public health intervention), Medical Device and interventional Procedure Committee (for the clinical assessment of medical devices and interventional procedures) and Diagnostics Committee (for the clinical assessment of diagnostic, predictive and prognostic health technologies). In addition, HAS is also tasked to provide national recommendation on vaccination (NITAG), which are examined by a specialised and dedicated Vaccine Committee.
The HTA process depends on the type of the health technology, as well as on the type of the assessment in some cases. In short:
- for medicinal products and medical devices: single HTA is performed at the request of the health technology manufacturer and is based on the dossier submitted by the manufacturer. On the other hand, multiple technology assessments are performed at the request of the government or on HAS’ own initiative and are based on systematic literature review carried out by HAS.
- for medical procedures and public health interventions: HTA is carried out on HAS’ own initiative or at the request of government (eg the Ministry of Health), national health insurance, manufacturers, learned societies, users’ associations etc. The process is based on systematic literature review carried out by HAS.
The assessments are performed by different divisions of the HTA department, and can involve external experts (e.g. health care professionals and patients).
At the end, the appraisal is issued by one of the specialist committees (see above), or in some cases (depending on the type of the health technology) by the HAS Board.
Dissemination Activities
Dissemination strategies involve communicating with the media, editing and publishing reports, professional and public conferences, and exchange of information at local, regional, national and international levels. Information posted on our website (abstracts, reports, etc) is continuously updated. Assessment reports and documents supporting decisions are posted on the HAS website.
Current Projects
Information on current and upcoming projects may be obtained from the HAS website.
Current Strategic Plan
The future plan can be found in the HAS Strategic Plan 2019-2024 (in French only).
Agency Information
Country: France
Description of population served: National
Population served (mil): 68
Current budget (mil Euros): 71,87 in 2022
Permanent staff: 434 in 2022
Consultants: variable
TA projects per year: 767 appraisals and decisions issued in 2022 (381 on medicinal products (352 clinical and 29 economical appraisals), 273 on medical devices, 15 on medical procedures and 98 decisions on early access for medicinal products presumed to be innovative).
Contact Information
Director: Jean Lessi
Contact person: Judith Fernandez and Irena Guzina
Haute Autorité de Santé
French National Authority for Health
2, avenue du Stade de France, Saint-Denis La Plaine
FR-93218 Paris France
Tel: 01 55 93 73 16
Fax: 01 55 93 37 09
Internet: http://www.has-sante.fr
Email: j.fernandez@has-sante.fr; i.guzina@has-sante-fr