To provide an overview of learning strategies that health technology assessment (HTA) agencies use worldwide to educate laypeople about HTA.

A scoping review focused on learning strategies to educate laypeople about HTA using the Joanna Briggs Institute frameworks was conducted across databases and gray literature. The study reviewed qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods studies from four databases, including practice documents from the HTA and health organization websites.

Fifteen studies were included in this review. The United Kingdom, Spain, and Canada mainly contributed to knowledge about educating laypeople in HTA. The main strategies employed were conference-like events, educational materials, training, and plain language. International HTA and health agencies developed courses, online training, and guidance materials to increase laypeople’s participation in the HTA process.

Efforts to improve public involvement in HTA focus on structured consultations, digital platforms, and capacity-building to enhance accessibility. Strategies like workshops and plain language aim to encourage lay participation, but challenges such as technical complexity and limited resources persist. Despite these challenges, incorporating patient perspectives has increased research relevance and public trust. Future studies should examine standardized frameworks for involvement, the impact of lay participation on policy, and solutions to barriers to a more equitable HTA process.

This study aimed to map strategies for educating laypeople about health technology assessment (HTA). Although integrating community is challenging, the engagement of patients/public in the processes of HTA has garnered support and endorsement from international network agencies. Dissemination of information, educational empowerment, and training are vital to give individuals capacity to partake in the intricate web of processes actively.

This review considered studies addressing educative strategies to train laypeople on HTA, additionally mapping and summarizing relevant methodological papers from any international HTA agency. Four databases were searched for qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods study designs. The grey literature search included policy and practice documents from HTA and health organization websites. Two reviewers independently completed title and abstract screening before the full-text review and data extraction.

The main contributors to the production of knowledge about educating laypeople in HTA were the United Kingdom (40%), Spain (20%), and Canada (13%). Most studies included were conducted in the context of the United Kingdom (27%), followed by Spain (20%), and international networks context (20%). The main strategies included conference-like events (21%), the production of educational materials (18%), training (11%), and the use of plain language (8%). Furthermore, international HTA and health agencies have offered courses, and online training produced and made available online guidance materials for increasing laypeople’s participation in the HTA process.

Despite the global efforts to educate laypeople on HTA, jurisdictional variations underscore the need for a more inclusive approach. Strategies like events, educational material production, training, and clear-language use offer diverse avenues for public engagement. International agencies’ commitment to courses, online training, and guidance reflects a collective effort to enhance public involvement.

Instituto Nacional de Traumato-Ortopedia (INTO) administrates the Enoxaparin drug to prevent deep vein thrombosis (DVT) after extensive orthopedic surgeries. Nevertheless, new oral anticoagulants that offer more comfort and efficacy, but present higher risk of bleeding, have been putting in question the use of Enoxaparin. Making use of the MACBETH method, this study develops a Multicriteria Value Measurement model to evaluate such drugs.

MACBETH was applied in helping INTO to evaluate two drugs (Rivaroxaban and Enoxaparin), taking into account drug benefits and risks, through a series of interviews and decision conferences attended by INTO stakeholders that acted as evaluators in the model-building process, supported by M-MACBETH DSS (www.m-macbeth.com). Following MACBETH preference elicitation process, the evaluators were asked to make qualitative pairwise comparison judgements of difference in value between stimuli for constructing quantitative value and weighting scales. These scales allow measuring the relative value of the drugs on each evaluation criterion, separately and globally. The value measurement process was informed by a literature review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials with a critical appraisal of the evidence.

We report a model-structure with eight criteria, hereafter presented by decreasing order of their weighting: Death from any cause, Clinically significant bleeding, Proximal DVT, Distal DVT, Existence of antidote, Thrombocytopenia, Costs, and Comfort. From the value model developed and after performing sensitivity and robustness analyses, Rivaroxaban was considered a robust option for thrombosis prophylaxis, under the MACBETH value framework and at the light of a simple additive aggregation of those eight criteria.

This study shows how a value measurement socio-technical framework, combining MACBETH with scientific evidence within a participatory group evaluation process, can support health technology assessment in a user-friendly and effective way. MACBETH facilitates transparent and robust decision-making in the face of complex evaluation problems that the hospital often faces.