sweden_flag  Stockholm, Sweden

“Improving health and welfare through science-based knowledge.”


– Britta Björkholm, Director General, SBU

 

History and Structure

SBU was established in 1987 and became a government agency in 1992. The agency is headed by a Supervisory Council, appointed by the government, which serves as an advisory body without decision-making powers and ensures democratic oversight and public participation.

SBU also has a Scientific Advisory Committee that advises the Director General and the heads of departments on their decisions. The Council also participates in the dissemination of SBU’s information.

Mission

SBU’s task is to critically review the scientific basis of methods used in health care and in social care to evaluate their benefits, risks and costs. Our main objective is to identify effective and ineffective practices both in the social services and health practices.

SBU’s task is to strengthen healthcare and social services by evaluating scientific evidence for new and existing methods from medical, social, economic, societal, ethical, and—where possible—gender equality perspectives. SBU also compiles knowledge on how the work environment affects disease, supports the assessment of occupational injuries, and presents all evaluations in accessible and practical formats to ensure they can be used by other national agencies, regions, municipalities, care providers, and other stakeholders.

The Agency works to identify methods where evidence is lacking, promotes the use of evidence-based practices, and continuously develops its ways of disseminating knowledge so that it leads to real improvements in healthcare and social services. SBU also serves as Sweden’s point of contact for international cooperation on health technology assessment.

How SBU works

The technologies to be assessed are prioritized using a set of criteria and through discussions within the Scientific Advisory Committee. A project group is then appointed, consisting of clinicians, economists, epidemiologists, SBU staff, and other professionals relevant to the topic.

The group’s task is to systematically review the entire body of scientific literature in the field. At SBU, the members are trained in the methods of systematic and critical reviews, based on the Cochrane Collaboration model.

The literature review usually takes up to two years to complete. Once finalized, the report is reviewed by external experts as well as by the SBU Scientific Advisory Committee.

Other products than the SBU Assessment are, the SBU Commentary, SBU Evidence map, SBU Policy support, SBU Enquiry service, Evidence gaps, Prioritisation of scientific evidence gaps, and SBU prioritisation support.

Dissemination of SBU reports

Communication plays an important part in ensuring that SBU’ scientific assessments have the impact required. SBU’s results are relevant to many people, including institutional heads of health care and social services, professional groups, patients, decision-makers at provincial and community level and those responsible for quality assurance and pharmaceutical committees.

SBU’s results are therefore widely disseminated. The conclusions are often reported and discussed in general media and in professional journals. New SBU reports are published on our website, in our digital newsletter, on social media, as well as some of them in Wikipedia and as short movies on the website. Most of the results are also translated into English as short summaries.

Our reports form a basis for study material, seminars, courses and lectures to draw attention and stimulate discussions of the reports. The results are also used as a basis for national, regional and local guidelines and are often the forerunner of recommendations from other authorities. The project groups and national networks are active at a local level to ensure that the reports are utilised as a basis for decision making and that the results are applied in practice.

 

Future Plans

SBU’s strategic plan for the period 2024–2028 consists of five overarching goals:

  • Our scientific prospective contributes to the development of health care and social services
  • Our method is used and recommended by additional relevant stakeholders
  • Our work contributes to co-ordinated and value-generating knowledge management
  • We are an attractive employer and learning organisation where everyone takes a holistic responsibility and contributes to a sustainable work environment
  • We are effective and continuously evolved the way we work with our core activities and administration

 

Agency Information

Country: Sweden
Description of population served: National
Population served (mil): 10.6
Current HTA budget (mil USD): 17.18
Permanent staff: 108
Consultants: 250 ad hoc
Ongoing TA projects: 14

Contact Information

Director General: Britta Björkholm
Contact person: Sophie Werkö

Swedish Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Assessment of Social Services
P.O. Box 6183
S-102 33 Stockholm Sweden

Tel: +46 8 412 3200
Fax: +46 8 411 3260
Internet:   https://www.sbu.se/en/
Email:  sophie.werko@sbu.se