Improving Consensus Development for Health Technology Assessment

Many countries have initiated their own consensus development programs. Although the idea of consensus development is common to all programs, the consensus development process and dissemination mechanisms differ across countries. The goal of the workshop was to examine existing programmes and to formulate suggestions for improvements in the use of the group judgment methodology. Before the workshop, individuals developed written profiles of nine consensus development programs in eight countries, including Canada (two programs), Denmark, Finland, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Workshop discussion was based upon five major presentations. Using material provided in the program profiles and other resources, each main presenter provided an examination of one particular aspect of consensus development across the different countries. The five major presentation papers that address different aspects of the consensus development programs are included in the first section of this report. The program profiles are provided in alphabetical order by country in the second section. The recommendations of the working group follow these sections.