Journal of Novel Applied Sciences Available online at www.jnasci.org ©2015 JNAS Journal-2015-4-9/940-946 ISSN 2322-5149 ©2015 JNAS Systematic review of prioritization criteria for topics of HTA projects: suggestions for Iran Reza Dehnavieh 1 , Somayeh Noori Hekmat 2 , Razieh Sepehrian 1* , Rahil Ghorbani Nia 1 and Tahereh Sharifi 1 1- Research Center for Health Services Management, Institute for Future Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran 2- Research Center for Modeling in Health, Institute for Future Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran Corresponding author: Razieh Sepehrian ABSTRACT: Background: Despite a lot of number of HTA topics, the available resources for evaluating all health technologies are limited. Therefore, priorities have to be set. Regarding the need to prioritize based on clear principles and criteria, this study aimed to propose priority setting criteria for topics of HTA projects for Iran. Methods: This study was a systematic review of literature. An electronic literature search was performed across EMBASE, Pub Med and Google Scholar in English language in the time interval of December 2013 and January 2014. A questionnaire also was sent through email to the 20 members of Euro Scan. All the selected studies and the opinions of Euro Scan members were reviewed exactly, and the main concepts including the priority setting criteria were extracted. Results: Findings from 34 selected studies of the systematic review and the opinions of 6 members of Euro Scan indicated that there are differences in the priority setting criteria for topics of HTA projects among different agencies. Also, 49 Criteria for priority setting of topics of HTA projects were identified and divided in 5 categories. Conclusion: Due to resource constraints, and in order to clear prioritization of topics of HTA projects, and efficient allocation of resources, most frequent Criteria were proposed for use in the Iran's Ministry of Health based on the selected studies of systematic review and opinions of Euro Scan members. Keywords: Priority setting, Health technology assessment, HTA, Criteria. INTRODUCTION Development and application of health technologies have created a great challenge for all health systems. Decision making particularly selection of expensive technologies should be evidence based due to restriction of resources in the health sector (1). Therefore, some tools and techniques that support decision-making and policy-making in the health field have emerged in order to make informed decisions and to clarify possible consequences of adopting a technology or the consequences of choosing one option. Many countries have been devised mechanisms for the rational use of these technologies. The common approach is health technology assessment. Health technology assessment contains complete and organized evaluation of all necessary conditions for the use of health technologies, and the results and consequences of that use (2). To date, only a part of the health technologies have been evaluated and more new technologies will be accepted continuously without evaluating. Due to the large number of potential health technologies to be assessed, no country has enough resources to do all these assessments. Therefore, priority setting is essential (3).