One day, I was perusing the news and I came across an article about the inclusion of five new high-cost drugs in the Thai benefits package. Unbeknownst to me, the Thai Universal Health Coverage (UHC) released a news article in all domestic newspapers informing the public that the Director-General of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnmnyZ14A4wIn health systems, although there are many stakeholders with different interests (healthcare practitioners, policymakers, industry, patients and the public), many share the value of better health for all. However, when a decision needs to be made, it is not

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

There was an overriding theme that HITAP’s activities focused on during the Prince Mahidol Award Conference (PMAC) 2015 – priority setting, which is also the theme for next year’s PMAC. As a new member of the HITAP team, I was involved in different activities during the Conference, particularly help

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

HITAP team facilitated a two and a half day workshop in Kathmandu, Nepal on March 30 – April 1, 2015 at the request of the Nepalese Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP). The goal of the workshop was to explore the potential application of health and technology assessment (HTA) to evaluate and in

I have had the unique opportunity to be an international fellow with Thailand’s Health Interventions and Technology Assessment Program (HITAP) for the last five months between February and June 2015. While the task of chronicling the invaluable experiences I have gained in this short time is a daunt

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

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

Indonesia launched its universal healthcare program in January 2014, a process that had been initiated in 2004. The scheme, Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional or JKN, is administered by a public agency called Badan Penyelenggara Jamina Sosial  or BPJS Health and is expected to cover all citizens by 2019. Wi