Conventional health technology assessment methods are inadequate for assessing new child health technologies, as they do not fully account for children’s distinct biology, the patterns of childhood diseases, and the unique social and familial contexts in which children live. To help supplement decision-making processes, ACCESS’ Regulation, Policy & Economics research team has developed an assessment tool that reflects Canadians’ beliefs in what is valuable to the short- and long-term health and well-being of children.

This oncologist-validated child-tailored scoring tool, the Comprehensive Assessment of Technologies for Child Health (CATCH) framework, was developed and tested with citizens, clinical experts, and health economists. Based on the well-known technique of multi-criteria decision analysis, it is meant to guide a transparent, structured, and coherent examination of the value of new drugs, holistically for and specific to children.

The project promotes evidence-informed reimbursement policies for childhood cancer drugs. Working directly with Canada’s Drug Agency (CDA) to trial the implementation of the validated decision tool, CATCH, we aim to embed a culture and practice of routine specific consideration of child-specific issues in the evaluation of potentially transformative drugs.

Objectives:

• trial and assess the usefulness of CATCH from the perspective of CDA’s Formulary Management Expert Committee (FMEC)
• understand optimal strategies of implementing CATCH within FMEC’s organizational structure and processes

For more information, please contact Jenna Craig.