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Introduction: The RedETS horizon scanning (HS) program in Spain is focused on identifying non-pharmaceutical emerging health technologies. HS is organized in three steps: (i) identification using different sources (PubMed, the biomedical press, and others); (ii) screening performed by the HS Working Group and clinicians; and (iii) prioritization using the PriTec tool. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of RedETS HS in identifying disruptive emerging technologies for our health system. Methods: Data from brief files and full reports related to the identified emerging technologies were collected. Full health technology assessment (HTA) reports were also reviewed. The period of analysis was from 2016 to 2023. The information collected included the name, type, category, and indication of the emerging technology and the source of identification. An ad hoc Excel spreadsheet was designed to collect the information. The analysis consisted of a description of the variables and an assessment of concordance between the emerging technologies identified and those with full HTA reports. Results: There were 338 emerging technologies identified. These technologies were mainly therapeutic (52.1%) or diagnostic (25.7%). In addition, about 45 percent were medical devices and 15.7 percent were in vitro diagnostic tests; imaging comprised 7.4 percent. Most of the emerging technologies were identified through the biomedical press (22.2%), PubMed (23.6%) and industry (20.3%). In a preliminary analysis of these main sources, 31 percent of the technologies identified by HS had full HTA reports, with all of these being identified three years before the HTA. Conclusions: HS systems might help identify the most relevant technologies for healthcare systems, enabling them to be more ready to incorporate the new technologies. Therefore, HS must be able to detect emerging technologies that will have an impact on the health system. Periodic evaluation of the accuracy of HS programs will improve their impact in the HTA process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Horizon scanning systems need to handle a wide range of sources to identify new or emerging health technologies. The objective of this study is to develop a validated Medline bibliographic search strategy (PubMed search engine) to systematically identify new or emerging health technologies.Methods: The proposed Medline search strategy combines free text terms commonly used in article titles to denote innovation within index terms that make reference to the specific fields of interest. Efficacy was assessed by running the search over a period of 1 year (2009) and analyzing its retrieval performance (number and characteristics). For comparison purposes, all article abstracts published during 2009 in six preselected key research journals and eight high impact surgery journals were scanned. Sensitivity was defined as the proportion of relevant new or emerging technologies published in key journals that would be identified in the search strategy within the first 2 years of publication.Results: The search yielded 6,228 abstracts of potentially new or emerging technologies. Of these, 459 were classified as new or emerging (383 truly new or emerging and 76 new indications). The scanning of 12,061 journal abstracts identified 35 relevant new or emerging technologies. Of these, twenty-nine were located within the Medline search strategy during the first 2 years of publication (sensitivity = 83 percent).Conclusions: The current search strategy, validated against key journals, has demonstrated to be effective for horizon scanning. Even though it can require adaptations depending on the scope of the horizon scanning system, it could serve to simplify and standardize scanning processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]