Background Health technology assessment (HTA) is a systematic evaluation of the benefits and harms of a health technology that aims to inform healthcare policy such as investment (or disinvestment) decisions. Producing HTAs requires time, and rapid HTAs are increasingly requested to support policy makers to inform expedited decision-making based on the best available evidence. Rapid HTAs must balance the trade-off between robustness of the evidence base and efficiency of production. However, consensus regarding what ‘rapid’ is, methodological approaches and pragmatic guidance for conduct are limited to date. This project is a collaboration between RCSI researchers and knowledge users (HIQA), with the overall aim of elaborating the definition and role of rapid HTAs in the context of informing national-level policy, health service decisions and international practice. Methods This aim will be achieved across four work packages (WPs). This research will be supported by public and patient involvement (PPI) through a specific PPI panel established as part of WP1. WP2 will compare and contrast different rapid HTA products internationally and map their specific steps, with a view to gaining a better understanding of when and for what purposes rapid HTAs are used. This will be achieved by a scoping review exploring what constitutes a rapid HTA, what omissions, abbreviations, or simplifications of traditional HTA are adopted, and any specific stakeholder engagement processes employed. WP3 aims to elicit stakeholders’ preferences for rapid HTA products and perceptions of the role of stakeholder engagement in rapid HTAs. This will be achieved through qualitative semi-structured interviews with international stakeholders and a discrete choice experiment with national stakeholders. WP4 will integrate the findings of WP2 and WP3 into criteria for inclusion in a suite of national HTA guidelines which will be presented to key stakeholders at a one day project dissemination event.
