Health technology assessment: the contribution of qualitative research.

The pragmatism in health care has made health technology assessment (HTA) restrict its scope to a particular set of problems, c.q. methods. The "multidisciplinary and comprehensive nature" of HTA, as the concept is presented in certain definitions, is lacking. Health care is also dominated by a positivistic-rationalistic approach of evaluation. In contrast, social studies of evaluations learn that a major difference has to be made between scientific research on (potential) impact of a technology and valuing these effects. In this contribution, we will discuss how the positivistic scientific bias of current HTA practice can be made up with other research traditions. More specifically, we focus on the question of how social scientists and particularly how qualitative research can contribute to HTA, complementary to positivistic studies of evidence and efficacy.