EuroScan
The European Information Network on New and Changing Health Technologie EuroScan.
The network was founded based on an European project in 1996. In the following years the group of agencies interested in doing Horizon Scanning increased supported by a secretariat within the University of Birmingham. Developing a toolbox and a database of documents the increasing network was also part of the development of horizon scanning in the US.
In 2016 changes in the UK forces EuroScan to think about next step of developments. The secretariat moved to Germany and EuroScan was found as a legal entity - a member driven, non-for-profit, scientific association (EuroScan international network e.V.). Supported by DIMDI - the federal institute for medical documentation and information (nowadays BfArM) - the network changes the activities and actions in different ways:
- taking part in European projects (e.g. EU Pearl, Safe-N-Medtech and more)
- establishing the brand for being the home of the global family of organisations (public agencies, academic institutions)
international HealthTechScan - iHTS (iHTS.org)
- running the open access journal "Health Innovation and Technologies - HInT", a pubmed listed journal on the eGMS platform by the scientific medical associations in Germany
- implementing iHTScience to run scientific projects on behalf of EuroScan int.net.
Starting as a network of health technology assessment agencies that identify and assess new and emerging technologies, the actions of EuroScan are nowadays manifoldness.
EuroScan int.net. is MoU partner of the World Health Organization (WHO), International Network of Agencies for HTA (INAHTA), Health Technology Assessment international (HTAi) and an associated member of HTAsiaLink