Table 1.

Definitions

Disinvestment: the process of withdrawing (partially or completely) health resources from those existing healthcare practices, procedures, technologies, and pharmaceuticals that are deemed to deliver no or low health gain and are thus not efficient health resource allocations (8).

Health Technology: Any intervention that may be used to promote health, to prevent, diagnose or treat disease or for rehabilitation or long-term care. This includes the pharmaceuticals, devices, procedures and organizational systems used in health care (24).

Health Technology Assessment: a multi-disciplinary field of policy analysis that examines the medical, economic, social and ethical implications of the incremental value, diffusion and use of a medical technology in health care (24).

Health Technology Reassessment: a structured, evidence-based assessment of the clinical, social, ethical and economic effects of a technology currently used in the healthcare system, to inform optimal use of that technology in comparison to its alternatives (4).