The University of Aberdeen, Robert Gordon University and McMaster Development Consultants or NESHTAG - the North-east Scotland technology assessment group -has won one of 10 contracts awarded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to centres of excellence for Technology Assessment Reviews (TARs).
TARs provide a reliable and rigorous evidence assessment of the benefits, harms and costs of particular healthcare treatments for those who plan, provide or receive care in the NHS.
TARs are commissioned to meet the urgent needs of national NHS decision-making bodies and policy customers, such as the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
TARs are most commonly produced to inform NICE Appraisal Committee guidance on the use of new and existing medicines, treatments and procedures within the NHS in England and Wales.
TARs are currently prepared by seven specialist independent academic groups based at universities in the UK.
By April 2011, the contract will extend to include 10 centres including academic and commercial evidence review centres.
Each TAR team is contracted to deliver an agreed number of high quality assessment reports to strict timetables in order to meet policy customer needs.
These contracts are managed by the HTA programme on behalf of the NIHR. All TARs undergo a rigorous process of peer and editorial review and are published in the Health Technology Assessment journal series visit www.hta.ac.uk/project/htapubs.asp
The current TAR teams are:
• NESHTAG - University of Aberdeen, Robert Gordon University and McMaster Development Consultants, an economics consultancy firm.
• West Midlands HTA Collaboration, University of Birmingham
• Peninsula Technology Assessment Group, University of Exeter
• Liverpool Reviews and Implementation Group, University of Liverpool
• School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield
• Southampton HTA Centre, University of Southampton
• CRD and Centre for Health Economics, University of York
From 1st April 2011 the current teams will be joined by:
• BMJ Evidence Centre
• Health Sciences Research Unit, University of Warwick
• Kleijnen Systematic Reviews Limited
For more details on NICE TARs and the TAR teams visit www.hta.ac.uk/about/customers/NICE