Health technology assessment is a type of comprehensive analysis that assesses any medicine, device, procedure, care setting or screening that may provide new or enhanced benefits to population health. Generally, it captures safety, efficacy, feasibility and cost-effectiveness issues, as well as social, economic and ethical impact. This training package includes content on conducting an assessment, adapting an assessment report from another setting and applying the results of health technology assessment to evidence-informed policy-making. The supplementary materials at the end are for optional further reading, and also includes a link to a networking opportunity.    

Key learning objectives include: 

understanding the key components of Health technology assessment;

describing the scope and methods of conducting an assessment;

identifying strategies to adapt assessment reports from other countries, regions or settings.

Conducting health technology assessments

The webinars below provide valuable context on how to approach a health technology assessment. The text material and online course offer more specific guidance on the component parts of assessment.

Topic	Source	Title	Format	Duration	Cost and access
Scope of health technology assessments	Janssen4Patients	Goals and purpose of health technology assessments	Webinar	10 minutes
Methods of health technology assessments	Janssen4Patients	Health technology assessment approaches	Webinar	5 minutes
Steps in conducting health technology assessments	FutureLearn MOOC by The University of Sheffield	Health technology assessment: choosing which treatments get funded	Online course	3 hours per week for 4 weeks
	National Library of Medicine (National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR))	HTA 101	Text	4-5 hours
Health Technology Assessments	FutureLearn MOOC by Univeristy of Glasgow	Introduction to Health Technology Assessment	Online Course	3 weeks	Free for a limited amount of time
Health Technology Assessments	FutureLearn MOOC by Univeristy of Glasgow	Health Technology Assessment in Practice	Online Course	3 weeks	Free for a limited amount of time
Key principles of Health Technology Assessments	FutureLearn MOOC by Univeristy of Glasgow	Health Technology Assessment: Definition and Method	Online Course	3 weeks	Free for a limited amount of time
Health economics	FutureLearn MOOC by University of Glasgow	Using Health Technology Assessment in support of Universal Health Coverage	Online Course	9 weeks	Free for a limited amount of time

 Adapting health technology assessments

The text resource below is structured as a toolkit to support adaptation of the findings from an assessment report from one context into another.

Topic	Source	Title	Format	Duration
Adaption of HTA reports from other settings	European Network for Health Technology Assessment (EUnetHTA)	Work Package 5: Adapting existing HTAs from one country into other settings	Text	1 hour

Supplementary materials

All supplementary materials are optional. The text material listed here is part of the WHO medical device technical series and provides a good overview of the role of HTA. The networking reference invites you to engage with the Health Technology Assessment International and it will depend on your circumstances if you or your organization has capacity to join.

Topic	Source	Title	Format	Duration
Health technology assessment methods and health system context	WHO	Health technology assessment of medical devices	Text	1 hour
This webinar explores opportunities as well as sharing learning and guidance for cultivating effective and mutually-beneficial collaboration between clinical practice guideline developers and health technology assessment producers.	Guideline International Networks	Exploring the Synergy Between Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and Guideline Communities	Webinar	1 hour