Reply: cost-effectiveness of population-based screening for colorectal cancer.

In his letter, Dr O’Mahony (2012) makes two main points. The first of these relates to the number of alternatives explored during our assessment of colorectal cancer screening in Ireland (Sharp et al, 2012), and the second relates to the terminology used in the paper. Our paper reports findings from a health technology assessment (HTA) of colorectal cancer screening; the full report has been published (Health Information and Quality Authority, 2009a). The purpose of HTA is to inform decision makers about the relative efficacy and costs of possible health-care interventions in order that coherent policy decisions can be taken. In the case of our work, the question of interest was whether population screening for colorectal cancer in Ireland would be effective and cost effective.