Hospital-based health technology assessment: The next frontier for traditional Chinese medicine hospitals

Hospital-based health technology assessment(HB-HTA) is highly valuable in the application of hospital medical technology, cost control, improvement of medical quality, and protection of medical safety, and its use is increasing daily globally. However, in China, HB-HTA is still in its infancy, and it is yet to be adopted in traditional Chinese medicine(TCM). Therefore, this article introduces the application and development of HB-HTA, as well as discusses the current situation of TCM and related future development strategies to provide ideas and references for the development of HB-HTA in TCM. We conclude and recommend that all major stakeholders, including the state, health departments, and hospital leaders,support and promote the exploration and development of HB-HTA in TCM hospitals and integrative medicine hospitals. We also suggest the utilization of existing talents and introduction of other necessary talents to promote better and faster organizational development, as well as suggest the formation of a national and internationally recognized HB-HTA guidance manual and toolkit for TCM hospitals based on both the national HTA guidelines and the evaluation of TCM hospitals pilot projects. Moreover, we recommend that HB-HTA pilot study should be executed with Chinese patent medicine as the starting point to form the implementation process and framework in the TCM arena.