Disinvestment of ineffective, low value technologies is growing as a priority for international health policy in order to improve quality and maximize value in health care. Different strategies have been implemented at the international and national level using various methods of evidence gathering and technical assessment. However, the success of these initiatives is mixed, with fewer than half of the empirical studies reporting reductions in the use of low value services.

This review explored the role of stakeholders in the disinvestment process by describing the initiatives and analyzing the methods used for reassessment. We also identified the facilitators and barriers related to disinvestment implementation.

This scoping review was guided by the JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis and the PRISMA statement for scoping reviews. Strategic literature searches were performed to identify published reviews on disinvestment in health care using the MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Scopus databases. Data were extracted using a predesigned form and then synthesized narratively to identify similarities and differences across the approaches according to prespecified domains.

Sixteen reviews were included. We identified various disinvestment initiatives across 16 countries, with a minimum of 34 initiatives at different levels of implementation and with various agencies responsible for the activities. Two of the most used methods for facilitating disinvestment decisions were program budgeting and marginal analysis (PBMA) and health technology assessment (HTA). Stakeholder involvement was the most important aspect to be addressed since it acts as both a facilitator and a barrier in implementing disinvestment initiatives. Meaningful engagement may be strengthened with continuous stakeholder participation, transparency in methods and processes, and ongoing knowledge transfer.

This scoping review highlights the role of stakeholder involvement in disinvestment, which is a double-edged sword because it both facilitates and hinders disinvestment implementation. The most common methods for assessing candidates for disinvestment are PBMA and HTA, but there is a lack of clarity on which HTA dimension is suitable for a disinvestment process.