Feedback on consumer input

Overview

We are seeking your views on how consumers and consumer organisations should receive feedback after they provide input on HTA committee agenda items.

The Office of Health Technology Assessment’s (OHTA) Consumer Evidence and Engagement Unit (CEEU) is exploring practical ways to give clear and consistent feedback to consumers and consumer organisations about how their input was used during the health technology assessment (HTA) process and in HTA committee discussions.

What we mean by “consumers”

In this survey, “consumers” means people who use, have used, or may use health services. This includes patients, carers, family members, people with lived experience, members of the public, patient groups and consumer organisations.

We use the term “consumer input” to mean information consumers provide about lived experience, preferences, needs, priorities and expectations for a health technology or health condition.

Health technologies may include medicines, vaccines, medical services, tests, procedures, devices and other health interventions.

HTA committees consider evidence about health technologies to help inform government subsidy decisions. There are two main HTA committees:

Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC), which considers medicines for listing on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), and
Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC), which considers medical services and devices for a Medicare item number.

An HTA Committee agenda item is a health technology or group of technologies being considered by an HTA committee. Consumers, consumer organisations and other stakeholders can provide input to inform decisions made by HTA committees about each agenda item.

Before you start

You may find it useful to look at some of the current ways that feedback is given, before answering this survey. These include:

Why your views matter

Consumers and consumer organisations have said they want to understand what happens to the input they provide [1][2]. We refer to this as a ‘Feedback Loop’.

This survey asks what feedback would be useful to you, including:

what you would like feedback on
why this feedback matters to you
when you would like to get feedback
how you would like to get feedback

[1] Conversations for Change Report 2023 | Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

[2] Enhance HTA: An Enhanced Consumer Engagement Process in Australian Health Technology Assessment – A report of recommendations | Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

We will summarise your responses in a report which will help the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing consider a consistent way to give feedback to consumers and consumer organisations on their input.

If you cannot respond online, please email htaconsumerengagement@health.gov.au

Tell us what you think

Start the survey

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