Osteba, Basque Office for Health Technology Assessment was established in autumn 1992. It aims to promote the appropriate use of health technologies in terms of safety, effectiveness, accessibility and equity, providing necessary information for decision-making.

Osteba has made a great effort to optimize the methods of work, both for literature searches and critical reading of the different study designs, economic evaluation, identification and evaluation of emerging and obsolete technologies, making recommendations and elaborating Clinical Practice Guidelines.

Osteba is a founding member of the International Network o Agencies for Health Technology Assessment (INAHTA) and the international network of clinical practice guidelines - GIN. It is also founder member and participates in the International Information Network on new or emerging, appropriate use and re-assessment needed Health Technologies, Euroscan.

It is also an Associated Member of the European Network for Health Technology Assessment - EUnetHTA, where 59 Agencies for Health Technology Assessment (HTA), research institutions and health ministries of 31 European countries have joined forces: https://www.eunethta.eu/

He is currently an associated member of the European project PHGEN II, Public Health Genomics, which aims to harmonize the introduction of genetic technologies in health systems and has received funding from the General Directorate of Public Health (DG SANCO) of the European Union until March 2012.

The information presented here is intended and designed to be used by health professionals.

If you are a patient and need information about any particular case, we suggest you to consult healthcare professionals who are trained in the interpretation of these materials and their application individually.

Thanks to the collaboration agreement between the Ministry of Health and the Iberoamerican Cochrane Collaboration is possible to have free access to the Cochrane Library.