Identifying Patient needs: methodological approach and application

KCE Reports 348C (2022)

Health innovations often meet needs which are more closely linked to the supply aspect (industry, hospitals, care providers, etc.) than to patient demand. The public authorities are aware of this fact and are trying to reverse this tendency. With this is mind, KCE has developed a method for identifying in a scientific and structural way the most important patient needs that are not being met. This method could be used in NIHDI’s reimbursement decisions, and it could also help, firstly, to provide better information to health professionals on actual patient needs and, secondly, to determine the research priorities to be set in the agendas of industry and of the bodies that finance public research.