Patient and social aspects form a key domain within health technology assessments (HTAs) but are less well established in rapid HTA. Patient aspects can add value to HTAs by aiding in interpretation of variations in intervention effectiveness or providing context on the impact of interventions on patients’ lives. This poster describes initial experience of incorporating patient aspects into a rapid HTA for the Scottish National Health Service.

A rapid review explored using qualitative literature to understand patient issues relating to transoral robotic surgery (TORS) for head and neck cancer. Literature searches identified qualitative studies or systematic reviews of qualitative studies using two search filters: one for patient perspectives and another for qualitative study designs.

No qualitative literature specific to the exact question posed in the HTA was identified. Instead the project focused on patient experiences of alternative treatments (radiotherapy or open surgery) and identifying patient-important outcomes, such as speech function or lack of facial disfigurement. Pragmatic decisions on study selection were required in the TORS review due to the large volume of literature identified: we only included the most recent studies and limited our selection to patients with specific forms of head and neck cancer. Selecting studies from a large volume of literature may be an issue for future rapid HTAs attempting to incorporate qualitative evidence. The qualitative studies were summarised and used to inform advice issued to NHSScotland by the Scottish Health Technologies Group (SHTG).

Patient aspects can be incorporated into rapid HTAs using systematic and pragmatic approaches to identifying and summarizing qualitative literature. Future rapid HTAs by SHTG may include syntheses of qualitative studies rather than summaries. Patient submissions are also being piloted as a method of collating patient experiences.