Adoption of new health care services in Norway (1993-1997): specialists' self-assessment according to national criteria for priority setting

Objectives: To identify health care services adopted in Norway in the perio d 1993-1997. and examine them according to proposed national guidelines for priority setting. These guidelines define core services. Design: Two-stage self-administered questionnaire. Setting: The Norwegian public healthcare system. Subjects: Presidents of all relevant specialist and sub-specialist associations in the Norwegian Medical Association (n = 56). Outcome measure s: Number of adopted services satisfying the priority criteria of core serv ices, according to physician's self-assessment. Number and type of interven tions suited for the priority-setting criteria. Results: Thirty-two percent of new technologies satisfied the definition of core services according to specialists own assessment. Of the 88 responses analysed for the second st age of our survey, fifteen answers (17%) indicated lack of applicability of the priority setting criteria. Loss of applicability was related to diagno stic and procedure-related technologies. Conclusions: Less than one-half of the assessed technologies adopted in Norway in the period 1993-1997 satisf y proposed national criteria for priority setting. The guidelines are appli cable for most interventions. but fail in most evaluations of diagnostic an d procedure-related improvements. Independent and systematic evaluations of new technologies are needed within the context of priority setting. (C) 20 01 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.