About Good Clinical Practice (GCP)

Analysis of clinical practices and development of recommendations of good practice Good Practice recommendations include the most up-to-date medical knowledge. They provide a tool for physicians during diagnosis and treatment.

They are drawn up according to highly codified principles, based on scientific information regularly updated from the international literature. KCE analyses clinical practices in current use on the basis of existing recommendations. Recommendations must be regularly adapted in the light of constantly changing evidence.

The KCE generally works with Belgian and international scientific associations for these studies.

About Health Services research (HSR)

In this field of research, the KCE tries to answer the following questions:

• What is the best way to organise and finance healthcare in Belgium?
• How do we keep healthcare accessible and affordable?
• Does everyone have equal access to healthcare?
• What are the objectives of our healthcare system? Are these objectives achieved?

HSR projects cover various scientific disciplines: medicine, economics, sociology, biostatistics, psychology. They require a wide range of investigation strategies, executed by a multidisciplinary research team.

Through HSR, the KCE hopes to hand elements based upon scientifically research that can be used to optimise the management and organisation of the healthcare sector in Belgium. Healthcare must be of the highest quality and be accessible to the largest number of people at an affordable price.

About Health Technology Assessment (HTA)

The market is flooded with generally expensive technologies, treatments and drugs that are often presented as innovative and promising. The aim of the HTA studies is to assess the effectiveness and the safety of these technologies, treatments and drugs. The researchers also attempt to measure the cost effectiveness of the treatments or technologies studied: is the health benefit in proportion to the cost? Does the technology or treatment offer an affordable added value?

KCE made HTA projects one of the foundations of the KCE’s mission. Not because they are a means of justifying savings in the health sector, or as a barrier to the introduction of new technologies, but because they can be used to support the public authorities in their desire to offer added value to patients and to use the available resources as efficiently as possible.

Innovation does not necessarily mean higher healthcare costs. Innovation means offering better and less expensive products. Through its HTA studies, the KCE contributes to optimal allocation of the limited resources available.