In December 2017, a patient involvement (PI) Interest Group was created in the Spanish Network of Agencies for Assessing National Health System Technologies and Performance (RedETS) Annual conference. It started as a voluntary group of health technology assessment (HTA) methodologists interested in PI. The objective of the Group is to promote and facilitate PI in HTA. With the support of the Spanish Ministry of Health and the RedETS Council the Interest Group grew to at least one member for each of the eight RedETS regional agencies and units. It currently has 22 members. The PI Interest Group works in periodic online meetings and an annual offline meeting to establish a space for experiences exchange and reach consensus on main issues regarding PI.

RedETS published a strategy to facilitate effective and efficient PI in HTA processes in 2017. The long-term objective is to mainstream PI in all RedETS products. This strategy was built on a literature review and a qualitative study with semi-structured interviews. The interviews detected capacity building needs for technicians and methodologist in the network to be able to actively engage patients in HTA reports.

Since the kick-off meeting the PI Interest Group has worked in a number of activities. The main lines of action since its creation were: (i) evaluation of PI process in RedETS HTA reports in 2017 and in current reports, (ii) discussion on main methodological and procedural aspects, and feasibility of different patient participation approaches, (iii) development of technical protocols and templates to facilitate PI, (iv) the creation/adaptation of educational materials for patients and (v) translation of the HTAi Glossary for patients to Spanish.

Peer-to-peer learning processes can foster technical capacity of HTA methodologist in the Spanish HTA Network and may favor the implementation of the PI strategy.