Around the globe, countries looking to improve value for money are investing in systems to build the information base for healthcare decision-making. Where governments are reimbursing healthcare providers, understanding the cost-of-service provisioning is a critical part of this evidence base. Many countries, like the UK and Australia, that have advanced along the universal health coverage (UHC) route have developed sets …
Ghana launches its first Strategy for Health Technology Assessment (HTA)
Yesterday, Ghana launched its first Strategy for Health Technology Assessment (HTA). This strategy sends out a clear message of Ghana’s ambitious commitment to evidence informed priority setting. It recognizes that building an HTA function demands action on several areas, including capacity development, topic selection, and bespoke methods guidelines, all linked by a strong governance framework. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the use …
Webinar by Dr Hugo Turner, on the types of models used in economic evaluations, static versus dynamic models
Mathematical models are regularly needed to evaluate the impact of public health interventions and are often needed to perform economic evaluations. They are therefore an important element of priority setting and health technology assessments. Consequently, it is important to understand the key features, strengths and weaknesses of the different types of models used in this area. In particular, when evaluating …
The Health Technology Assessment programme in India (HTAIn): two exciting developments
The International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI) is proud to support India as it continues to make huge strides towards health priority setting. iDSI has an ongoing technical assistance programme with the Government of India through the Department of Health Research (DHR) with a focus on Health Technology Assessment (HTA). The Health Technology Assessment programme (HTAIn) which is funded by the …
Health Technology Assessment proves a hit as almost 100 delegates attend sustainable resource allocation event in Accra
Almost 100 delegates policy representatives from across Africa and Europe gathered in Accra, Ghana this month for a special event that focused on sustainable resource allocation policies for low and middle income countries (LMICs), co-hosted by iDSI and Health Technology Assessment international (HTAi). The two-day ‘Setting Priorities Fairly: Sustainable Policies for Effective Resource Allocation’ event, opened Ghana’s Deputy Minister for …
Improving detection and control of hypertension in Kerala, India
A risk factor left unmonitored Hypertension is a leading risk factor for mortality in India with more than 200 million people in the country estimated to have high blood pressure (BP). There is, however, very little awareness about this silent killer with 75% of the rural and 60% of the urban Indian population unaware of their hypertensive status. BP control in …
7 key messages from the new iDSI report “Improving the quality and efficiency of healthcare services in Ghana through HTA”
In Africa, the burden of communicable diseases, maternal and child morbidities and mortalities is fast shifting towards chronic non- communicable diseases, giving rise to a phenomenon known as “double burden of illness”. Given that few domestic resources are allocated to health, and externally provided funds are committed to siloed disease programmes, there is an urgent need to develop practical and …
Towards HTA in the Philippines: iDSI welcomes passage of new Congress UHC Bill
September 6th 2017, the Philippines’ lower house of Congress approved the Universal Health Coverage Bill, introducing key reforms to improve population coverage, reform provider payment, and strengthen health technology assessment (HTA) implementation, among others. It has been 15 years since HTA was introduced in the Philippines through the efforts of dedicated key individuals. This development marks a crucial step towards …
Building strong relationships with country partners to achieve universal health coverage
Earlier this week we announced the launch of the new iDSI website: a platform that highlights our work helping low and middle income countries to achieve sustainable, good quality healthcare and also provides a place for our experts to weigh in on current events in the global health community on our blog. Our Impact The second feature of the new …
iDSI launches new communication platforms for the global health community
We’re very excited to announce that iDSI has a new and much improved website! We believe that the new site will better serve the global health community: providing access to key resources to support the advancement of healthcare systems and connecting people with our network of health economists and global health experts. You can find our website at the same …