Dr Sharon Phares Explores Equity Issues Regarding HTAs Among Women

Sharon Phares, PhD, MPH, chief scientific officer of the National Pharmaceutical Council, describes the lasting equity concerns regarding the use of health technology assessments (HTAs) for women.

What about other equity issues? Are HTAs considering equity systematically?

Phares: So, currently, they are not. There has been a lot of discussion in the HTA community around trying to address disparity in a better way. For instance, a medication that is found to be less valuable may be a medication that's more useful for someone who is poor because they have to take it less often. So, you don't have as many scheduling issues or need the same handling, like they don't need a special refrigerated space for that if you're sharing housing with other people or if you have homelessness issues. But also, to be able to address how medications impact the outcomes of different groups differently. So, this is where we need more real world evidence to come into play to really look at differences by various groups.