The former Catalan Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Research (CAHTA) broadens its functions and will be denominated Catalan Agency for Health Information, Assessment and Quality (CAHIAQ)*.

The CAHIAQ has now the mission of generating relevant knowledge to contribute to the improvement of the quality, safety and sustainability of the Catalan Health Care System and thus easing the decision-making process for citizens and health care managers and professionals.

The CAHIAQ will continue to perform its traditional responsibilities in health technology assessment and the health care evaluation services area, as well as managing calls for research.

In addition to this, new responsibilities will be taken in quality assessment and, especially, assuming the strategic projects in Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) led by the Catalan Health Ministry, such as the Shared Medical Record of Catalonia, the Personal Health Folder, Electronic Prescription, Telemedicine, and the Plan for Digital Medical Imaging.

Finally, the CAHIAQ integrates among its functions the Results Clearinghouse of our public Health Care System. The Results Clearinghouse is in charge of measuring, evaluating and spreading both data and results provided by different agents of the Catalan Health Care System.

Integrating infrastructures with the data and information generation, collection, management and assessment to be transformed into knowledge, the new Catalan Agency wants to facilitate the global management of the information life cycle.

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* This strategic approach has been led by the Catalan Health Ministry of the Government of the Generalitat of Catalonia, as a result of a reflection process which concluded in an agreement of the Catalan Government approved in the session of the Executive Board of June 15th 2010.