With the introduction of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Asian countries, priority-setting and HTA has become increasingly important.  However, only in the past decade has HTA been used to inform countries’ health programs and policies. As such, HTA agencies are relatively new in Asia.  In 20

In 2007, there were an estimated 58 million deaths worldwide and, according to the WHO, more than half of these deaths (35 million) were caused by chronic diseases.  Another study estimates that the number of deaths caused by chronic diseases will rise to 50 million in 2020.  The economic burden of

On April 7-10, 2015, a HITAP team visited Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, for a country scoping visit to explore the potential areas for introducing health technology assessment (HTA) to support health resource allocation, focusing on the investment or disinvestment of health technologies. This visit was c

With HTA gaining ground as a tool for priority-setting globally, it comes as no surprise that, alongside many other questions on the development of the mechanism, countries are trying to find ways to adapt HTA to their particular healthcare system and context. Such was the case the HITAP team found

Quality and Outcomes Framework Steering Meeting 15 March 2016 Thailand adopted in 2013 the Quality and Outcomes Framework, also known as the QOF. This program was initiated by the National Health Security Office (NHSO) in Thailand that is responsi

What definition of HTA do you subscribe to?Mark: HTA is a term that is used quite loosely. It seems that the formal definition is to provide an assessment of medical technologies using different perspectives including clinical, economic, ethical and technical. But I think the meaning that it has dev

(HITAP, Thailand) On 23-25 January 2017, delegates from the Department of Health Research (DHR), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, visited HITAP to learn about the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) system in Thailand. During the discussion, the application of the Thai expe

In the global scheme of medicines provision, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face difficulties in ensuring medicine access. Aside from the improvements still needed to healthcare infrastructure, financing, and service delivery, these countries also face issues in prioritizing their health s

Bhutan’s national and also the oldest newspaper named ‘Kuensel’ from the Kuensel Corporation Limited published a story featuring, our support to the Bhutanese government in evaluating new vaccines through an economic evaluation, in their issue of 28th August 2017 http://www.kuenselonline.com/moh-exp

Development cannot be contained in a numerical measure of Gross National Product/Gross Domestic Product (GNP/GDP), conceding this the UN gave a universal call to its member nations for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDG 3 explicitly states “ensuring healthy lives and promote well-bein