First EDiHTA General Assembly meeting held in Rome

The meeting commenced at the Italian Ministry of Health with a welcoming address by project coordinators Prof. Americo Cicchetti and Dr. Dario Sacchini from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, highlighting the project’s objectives, work plan, state of play and setting the tone for a collaborative and insightful meeting.

Marco Marchetti from the Italian National Agency for Regional Healthcare Services (AGENAS) outlined the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in harmonising HTA processes across the EU, emphasising the need for a collaborative approach to overcome existing barriers. It was a pleasure to also have EDiHTA Project Advisor Claudia Prettner on site, providing the consortium with insights into the work of the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) and embedding the EDiHTA project within the wider context of EU-funded Horizon Europe projects.

Stakeholder engagement was a central theme of the meeting, with a dedicated workshop led by Emmanouil Tsiasiotis (UCSC) and Dr. Wija Oortwijn (RUMC). The workshop facilitated an active exchange of ideas and strategies to enhance targeted stakeholder involvement across all Work Packages (WPs) of the project.

The second meeting day was centered around the different work packages of the EDiHTA project, these interactive sessions led by the involved WP-leads facilitated valuable discussions, ranging from project coordination and innovation management (WP1) to data security (WP2), framework design (WP3) and development (WP4), to the digitalisation (WP5) and piloting (WP6) of the HTA framework. The day was closed with an outlook on the commercial and non-commercial exploitation of EDiHTA (WP8) and a workshop on the EDiHTA outreach (WP7). Besides presenting the initial achieved progress, these sessions were instrumental in defining the next steps and strategies for the successful implementation of EDiHTA.

As the meeting concluded, the shared commitment to successfully developing the EDiHTA framework was evident. The two meeting days not only benefitted the work ahead, but also provided a valuable opportunity for networking. Engaging with both new and familiar colleagues was instrumental in reinforcing EDiHTA’s collective objectives.