The 12th HTAsiaLink Annual Conference, held on 19–22 August 2025 in Singapore, attracted health technology assessment (HTA) experts from across the Asia-Pacific region. The event welcomed over 450 participants from 98 organizations and showcased 175 abstracts, alongside three plenary sessions, two sharing sessions, and recognition of outstanding presentations through conference awards.
Throughout the conference, the Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program Foundation (HITAP) played an active role, supporting capacity-building efforts, showcasing academic excellence, and serving as both the Secretariat and a key member of the editorial team.
Pre-Conference Contributions
HITAP led two pre-conference sessions focused on building capacity and sharing practical HTA experiences.
- The first workshop, “Addressing Kidney Failure under Universal Health Coverage (UHC): How to Conduct Economic Evaluation to Inform Policy”, explored how patients with kidney failure can access life-saving care under UHC. Participants learned to generate economic evidence for kidney replacement therapy, covering decision problem definition, model selection, and data input preparation, while interactive discussions linked best-practice guidelines to local contexts to support stronger policy decisions.
- The second session, “Addressing Equity in Health Technology Assessment: Insights and Applications of Distributional Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (DCEA) in Policy Making”, where participants explored methods to assess the equity impacts of policy decisions and shared country-specific experiences. This session underscored HITAP’s commitment to supporting equitable health policies.
Moreover, HITAP representatives joined the workshop session “Voices to Action: The Value of Involving Patients in HTA,” showing the important role of patient engagement. The team shared how patient input helped shape decisions in HTA, drawing on real examples from Thailand, such as kidney replacement therapy policies and early HTA efforts. These stories highlighted that including patient perspectives not only makes the evidence more relevant but also helps HTA have a bigger impact on healthcare policy and outcomes.
HITAP Voices in Main Conference Sessions
During the main conference, HITAP leadership contributed to multiple sessions, demonstrating expertise on HTA application in policymaking.
- Dr. Wanrudee Isaranuwatchai moderated the plenary, “Exploring the Multiverse of Healthcare through HTA: Diverse Perspectives, Unified Outcomes”. The panel, composed of experts from diverse contexts, highlighted how methodological diversity and cross-stakeholder perspectives can enrich health policy discussions, emphasizing that learning from multiple approaches strengthens HTA’s role in shaping health systems.
- Dr. Yot Teerawattananon spoke in the plenary “Translating HTA into Impactful Results – Value-Based Healthcare (VBHC)”. The session explored implementing VBHC through a patient-centered lens, showcasing Thailand and Singapore case studies, value frameworks for resource allocation, and practical lessons on translating evidence into policy. Moreover, this plenary highlighted HITAP’s ability to bridge research and actionable health decisions.
- HITAP also contributed to two sharing sessions. First, Dr. Wanrudee discussed how epidemiological models guide policy for infectious diseases, highlighting the need for clear standards to improve HTA utility. Second, Dr. Yot joined regional experts to present updates on the Asia-Preference-Based Measure-7 Dimension (AP-7D), a novel preference-based measure to better capture Asian population health preferences, providing a deeper understanding of regional health values.
Celebrating HITAP Team Excellence
HITAP team members were recognized for their outstanding contributions at this year’s conference. First Prize awards were presented to Ms. Chittawan Poonsiri for her oral presentation on Economic Evaluation, Ms. Angela Judhia Arkandhi for her oral presentation on Health Services Research, and Ms. Siobhan Botwright for her poster on Health Services Research. Second Prize went to Ms. Wilasinee Samniang for her poster in the “Others” category, while Ms. Jiratorn Sutawong received an Honorary Mention for her oral presentation on Health Services Research.
Additionally, all HITAP presenters played an important role in sharing insights within the HTA community. Their work continues to strengthen evidence-informed health policy and inspire collaborative efforts across the region.
Strengthening Collaboration
HITAP met with the Agency for Care and Effectiveness (ACE), Singapore, to strengthen their partnership and explore opportunities for collaboration in health technology assessment. The discussion focused on advancing evidence-informed health policy across the Asia-Pacific region.
As HTAsiaLink’s Secretariat and Editorial team, HITAP actively participated in the annual board and member meetings during the conference. The meetings reflected on conference highlights, reviewed the year’s progress, discussed future opportunities, and enhanced regional HTA collaboration.
HITAP thanks the members of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) and the Local Organizing Committee, led by ACE, Singapore, for their dedication in making HTAsiaLink 2025 a success. Their commitment was vital in ensuring a well-organized and impactful conference, and HITAP is proud to support their efforts.
The meetings also announced the new HTAsiaLink Board for the 2025–2026 term:
- President: Division of Health Technology Assessment, Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE), Taiwan
- Vice-President: InaHTAC, Ministry of Health, Indonesia
- Board Members:
- Malaysia Health Technology Assessment Section (MaHTAS), Ministry of Health Malaysia
- The Australian Safety and Efficacy Register of New Interventional Procedures – Surgical (ASERNIP-S)
- Center for Outcomes Research and Economic Evaluation for Health (C2H), National Institute of Public Health, Japan
- National Evidence-based Healthcare Collaborating Agency (NECA), South Korea
- Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, JIPMER, India
- ACE, Singapore
This contribution reaffirmed HITAP’s ongoing role and contributions in HTAsiaLink, highlighting its position as a key leading player in shaping the future of HTA in the region.
