scholarly journals Health technology assessment in Mexico

2009 ◽  
Vol 25 (S1) ◽  
pp. 270-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Octavio Gómez-Dantés ◽  
Julio Frenk

Objectives: The history of health technology assessment (HTA) in Mexico is examined, starting with the efforts to incorporate this topic into the policy agenda and culminating with the recent creation of a specialized public agency.Methods: Information was gathered through a bibliographic search and interviews with actors involved in HTA in Mexico.Results: HTA efforts were developed in Mexico since the mid-1980s with the participation both of academics and of policy makers, a relationship that eventually led to the creation of the Center for Technological Excellence within the Ministry of Health.Conclusions: Institutionalization of HTA in resource-constrained settings requires the development of a critical mass of researchers involved in this field, the implementation of information efforts, and the establishment of strong relationships between HTA experts and policy makers.

Author(s):  
Morteza Arab-Zozani ◽  
Mobin Sokhanvar ◽  
Edris Kakemam ◽  
Tahereh Didehban ◽  
Soheil Hassanipour

This article describes the characteristics of the health system and reviews the history of health technology assessment (HTA) in Iran, including its inception, processes, challenges, and lessons learned. This study was conducted by analyzing existing documents, reports, and guidelines related to HTA and published articles in the field. HTA in Iran has been established since the late 2000s and was first introduced as a secretariat by the Deputy of Health at the Ministry of Health and Medical Education. The mission of the HTA office is to systematically assess technologies to improve evidence-informed decision making. Despite its 10 years of existence, HTA in Iran still faces some challenges. The most pressing problems currently facing HTA in Iran include conflicts of interest among researchers performing the HTAs, the absence of a systematic structure for identifying and introducing new technologies, the lack of interest in HTA results among high-level policy makers, and the lack of external oversight for HTA projects.


2009 ◽  
Vol 25 (S1) ◽  
pp. 140-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jankauskiene Danguole

Objectives: To describe how Lithuania is attempting to develop health technology assessment (HTA) structures.Methods: The case study of the history of development of HTA in Lithuania is presented.Results: Historical steps of HTA development are as follows: in 1993, a few conferences on HTA; eight people were trained in Sweden at SBU; the book First Steps of HTA in Lithuania (5) was issued together with SBU in 1993; participation in the International Society of Technology Assessment in Health Care (ISTAHC) conferences; participation in development of training courses and European networks of HTA; new people in HTA were trained in health accreditation service, Sickness Fund, and Ministry of Health. The major step was establishment of an evidence-based medicine library.In 1994, Article 54 in the Health Care System Law, which declares that the use of healthcare technologies that have not been assessed or approved shall be prohibited, except in cases provided by law, was passed. The procedure of healthcare technologies assessment and approval was to be established by the Ministry of Health Care. A policy of HTA was approved with the program for HTA in 1999 in the Ministry of Health. Currently, enthusiasts of HTA fully realize that technology assessment is a developing frontier for creative and constructive thinking from all disciplinary view points.Conclusions: Unfortunately, in this country, there is still a very small demand for HTA reports from the decision-maker's side. Hopefully joining the network of European Union Network for Health Technology Assessment (EUnetHTA) will give a new challenge for further policy development.


2002 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Egon Jonsson

Health technology assessment (HTA) grew from a need recognized by researchers concerned about the effectiveness of health services. They were later joined by policy makers in search of valid information about the costs and benefits of investments in health care. The history of HTA shows that this need appeared in many countries at nearly the same time.


2009 ◽  
Vol 25 (S1) ◽  
pp. 285-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sadasivan Sivalal

I have long felt the need for documentation on the global development—I could probably pin it to the moment I was visiting health technology assessment (HTA) institutions in the United States in 1995, and was looking forward to a trip to the Office of Technology Assessment, only to be told it had just been shut. Instead, I visited the Office of Health Technology Assessment in Washington. In addition, I have observed that some regular attendees of annual meetings of International Society of Technology Assessment in Health Care (ISTAHC) and then Health Technology Assessment International (HTAi), have been slowly dropping out, so that a lot of the history as well as their valuable experiences and expertise have been lost. To be fair, studies have been written about specific HTA institutions, programs, countries, and even regions. Attempts have also been made to chart the history of HTA, but these have, however, fizzled out. Why is this important? Going back to my personal experience, when I first set out to establish HTA in Malaysia, I was plagued with several questions—apart from the obvious one about what HTA really meant, there were others like what organization structure should it have, what should be the work process, how could HTA be used, to name a few. I needed to know what the options were, for example, in coming up with an organizational structure, and to understand these options I would need to look at organizational models in other countries—should it be a national office with regional offices like the Canadian model, or a fully public agency but not within the department of health, like the Swedish model, or an almost independent agency like the Catalan agency in Barcelona. In the absence of a detailed account with the information I sought, I actually had to physically visit various agencies to study their organizational structure, work process, and application, to hear of the challenges they faced, and to learn from their experiences of what could work and what may not.


Author(s):  
Jacques Orvain ◽  
Bertrand Xerri ◽  
Yves Matillon

Health technology assessment (HTA) in France covers a variety of activities performed for different customers (e.g., health professionals in the field and policy makers in government) for the benefit of patients. To promote the improvement of quality in health care, France has set up a series of distinct agencies that report to the Ministry of Health but are also accountable to their other customers. We place particular emphasis on ANAES (National Agency for Accreditation and Evaluation in Health) whose main remit is HTA. We show how the diversity of HTA activities and their decentralization suggests tight collaboration among all the different bodies which perform HTA or are closely involved with HTA, and we provide examples of such collaboration.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (S1) ◽  
pp. 11-12
Author(s):  
Markus Wübbeler ◽  
Sebastian Geis

IntroductionOpposition parties in Germany are allowed to send formal requests to the government to control actions and pass important political debates to the parliament. These formal requests include a comprehensive analysis report issued by the scientific service of the German parliament. A systematic overview of these reports would support a deeper understanding about healthcare topics and assessments discussed by parties in the highest German decision body, particularly in the field of nursing.MethodsWe conducted a review using the German parliament “Bundestag” database for all formal requests since 1949. To systemize the formal requests we performed a quantitative category analysis using descriptive statistics.ResultsWe identified 26,197 formal requests with 146 reports related to nursing issued between 1978 and 2019. The 146 reports related to nursing accounted for 0.54 percent of all requests. Almost 30 percent of these requests were related to recruitment and qualification. The second major topic, with 15 percent, was financing of the nursing sector. Of all 146 formal requests in the history of the Bundestag, 55 percent (n = 81) were issued in the last 10 years.ConclusionsNursing is an emerging topic in the German parliament, highlighting the demographic shift in Germany and the growing pressure in the nursing care sector. Health Technology Assessment bodies should be informed and work together with the scientific services of parliamentary bodies. This would support a more transparent and evidence based healthcare system, aside from lobbyism.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3873
Author(s):  
Milena Vainieri ◽  
Francesca Ferrè ◽  
Stefania Manetti

Combining insights from collaborative governance, performance management, and health technology assessment (HTA) literature, this study develops an integrated framework to systematically measure and monitor the performance of HTA network programmes. This framework is validated throughout an action research carried out in the Italian HTA network programme for medical devices. We found that when building up collaborative performance management systems, some elements such as the participation in the design and the use of context specific performance assessment framework, facilitate their acceptance by managers and policy makers especially in high professionalized and sector-specific organizations because it reflects their distinctive language and culture. The hybrid framework may help health authorities and policymakers to understand the HTA network, monitor its performance, and ensure network sustainability over time.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Hollingworth ◽  
Ama Pokuaa Fenny ◽  
Su-Yeon Yu ◽  
Francis Ruiz ◽  
Kalipso Chalkidou

Abstract Background Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are moving towards universal health coverage. The process of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) can support decisions relating to benefit package design and service coverage. HTA involves institutional cooperation with agreed methods and procedural standards. We systematically reviewed the literature on policies and capacity building to support HTA institutionalisation in SSA. Methods We systematically reviewed the literature by searching major databases (PubMed, Embase, etc.) until June 2019 using terms considering three aspects: HTA; health policy, decision making; and SSA. We quantitatively extracted and descriptively analysed content and conducted a narrative synthesis eliciting themes from the selected literature, which varied in study type and apporach. Results Half of the 49 papers identified were primary research studies and mostly qualitative. Five countries were represented in six of ten studies; South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Cameroon, and Ethiopia. Half of first authors were from SSA. Most informants were policy makers. Five themes emerged: (1) use of HTA; (2) decision-making in HTA; (3) values and criteria for setting priority areas in HTA; (4) involving stakeholders in HTA; and (5) specific examples of progress in HTA in SSA. The first one was the main theme where there was little use of evidence and research in making policy. The awareness of HTA and economic evaluation was low, with inadequate expertise and a lack of local data and tools. Conclusions Despite growing interest in HTA in SSA countries, awareness remains low and HTA-related activities are uncoordinated and often disconnected from policy. Further training and skills development are needed, firmly linked to a strategy focusing on strengthening within-country partnerships, particularly among researchers and policy makers. The international community has an important role here by supporting policy- relevant technical assistance, highlighting that sustainable financing demands evidence-based processes for effective resource allocation, and catalysing knowledge-sharing opportunities among countries facing similar challenges.


2009 ◽  
Vol 25 (S1) ◽  
pp. 224-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sadasivan Sivalal

Objectives: Malaysia, as a rapidly developing country, has been facing tremendous pressures in its attempts to maximize scarce resources. Despite this problem, Malaysia has made great strides in developing its health services, and has successfully provided good access to the population to healthcare services, reduced the incidence of many communicable diseases, and improved life expectancies and other global indices of health care, some of which are comparable to that of developed countries.Methods: The Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Unit was set up in Malaysia in August 1995 in the Ministry of Health Malaysia and has since grown tremendously in size and resources. To date, forty-three in-depth assessments have been carried out, and the recommendations of these assessments were subsequently implemented. In addition, approximately 140 rapid assessment reports were produced in response to requests from policy and decision makers. HTA has been able to provide input into formulation of national and Ministry of Health Malaysia policies, and provide a basis for clinical practice guidelines development, input into purchasing decisions, regulation of drugs, as well as advertisements related to health.Results: A major challenge is sustainability of the program, to be able to have trained personnel competent to take on the demanding tasks of assessments and the sustained efforts that are required. In addition, there need to be constant efforts to create awareness of the utility of HTA so that its services are used and its full potential realized. The scope of services may also need to be expanded to include an early warning system.Conclusions: Malaysia has successfully implemented a health technology program that has had major impact on policy formulation and decision making at various levels. Challenges may be faced in sustaining and developing the program further.


2009 ◽  
Vol 25 (S1) ◽  
pp. 82-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Cleemput ◽  
Philippe Van Wilder

Objectives: This paper gives an overview of health technology assessment (HTA) in Belgium.Methods: The information included in the overview is based on legal documents and publicly available year reports of the Belgian Health Care Knowledge Centre (KCE).Results: Belgium has a relatively young history in HTA. The principle of evidence-based medicine (EBM) was introduced in the drug reimbursement procedure in 2001, with the establishment of the Drug Reimbursement Committee (DRC). The DRC assesses the efficacy, safety, convenience, applicability, and effectiveness of a drug relative to existing treatment alternatives. For some drugs, relative cost-effectiveness is also evaluated. The activities of the DRC can, therefore, be considered to be the first official HTA activities in Belgium. Later, in 2003, KCE was established. Its mission was to perform policy preparing research in the healthcare and health insurance sector and to give advice to policy makers about how they can obtain an efficient allocation of limited healthcare resources that optimizes the quality and accessibility of health care. This broad mission has been operationalized by activities in three domains of research: HTA, health services research, and good clinical practice. KCE is independent from the policy maker. Its HTAs contain policy recommendations that may inform policy decisions but are not binding.Conclusions: Although the Belgian history of HTA is relatively short, its foundations are strong and the impact of HTA increasing. Nevertheless KCE has many challenges for the future, including continued quality assurance, further development of international collaboration, and further development of methodological guidance for HTA.


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