Patient involvement in health technology assessment (HTA) has documented advantages, such as improved understanding of disease context, and increased legitimacy and transparency of the HTA process. In the absence of clear metrics, thresholds, or criteria, it is not clear how input regarding patient preferences influences HTA based recommendations of the pan Canadian Oncology Drug Review (pCODR).

This is a concurrent complementary mixed methods study. A quantitative model (logit) is used to estimate the impact of patient input and other HTA criteria on pCODR recommendations. A qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews with Canadian HTA committee members is used to describe the mechanisms of action through which patient input influences recommendations.

Patient input was considered important in providing context to the HTA discussion, but committee members were not able to explicate how any specific elements of patient submissions weighted into the committee’s recommendation. There was an element of mistrust in the patient input data. The estimated impact of patient input on funding recommendations is not statistically significant, recommendations remain driven by evidence of clinical benefit.

The commitment to inclusion of patient perspectives in HTA in Canada is strong, and procedurally Canada is among the leaders in this regard. The tangible impact of patient input could be increased with an improved system for collection of most relevant data, and clear guidelines about how patient input should weigh into HTA recommendations.