History of health technology assessment in Sweden

Sweden has a long history of using data as a basis to form policies in many sectors of society. The very first documented efforts to collect data and use some kind of evidence to judge health care began 350 years ago in Sweden. In 1663, the Swedish Collegium Medicorum (re-named Collegium Medicum in 1688) was established; initially to distinguish quackery from medicine, to develop a pharmacopoeia, to control the trade of poisonous drugs, and banish all swindlers who (12;20;25;26).