Evidence-Based Assessment of PET in Germany

TO THE EDITOR: The article by Weber (1) offers some interesting interpretations of how PET is currently being assessed not only in Germany by the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) but also in other countries. However, the author made an incorrect statement about IQWiG that needs to be clarified. IQWiG does not “typically give grants to small companies specialized in preparing systematic reviews.” IQWiG has actually established a diligent process of selecting and commissioning external partners who have profound expertise both in evidence-based methodology and in the clinical field concerned. In most cases, IQWiG’s external experts are based or have previously worked at highly reputed universities. This can be easily checked on our Web site. However, the full range of expertise involved in IQWiG reports is not presented on the Web site, as some external experts prefer not to be named. In addition, we would like to note that every report on PET published by IQWiG was prepared in collaboration with at least one experienced clinician.

• © 2012 by the Society of Nuclear Medicine, Inc.