Page 27 - Htain Manual

minimum cost. HTA tries to identify the most cost- effective strategy among the available

alternatives, so that greatest amount of health can be bought for every rupee spent. In 2014,

the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution on use of HTA for progress towards

Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

HTA is defined as the systematic evaluation of properties, effects, and/or impacts of

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health technology. The word ‘technology’ can include interventions like drugs, devices,
diagnostics, treatments, vaccines or health programs. It is a multidisciplinary process that

summarises information about the medical, economic, social, organizational, legal and ethical
issues related to the use of a health technology in a systematic, transparent, unbiased, robust

manner. These effects are then comparatively evaluated for the available alternatives to

decide that which alternative offers best value for money.

Figure 1: Scope of Health Technology Assessment

Approaches used in HTA

Despite policy being subject to negotiation between multiple stakeholders,, HTA must

always be firmly rooted in research and the scientific method. HTA employs the principles of

economic evaluation to identify the most cost- effective health technology. Economic
evaluation refers to comparative analysis of alternative courses of action in terms of both

their costs and consequences. The aim of the health economic evaluation is to clarify the

relationship between the costs and consequences of a (new) health technology compared

with one or more relevant alternatives.

Health economic evaluation is primarily of four types: cost minimisation analysis

(CMA), cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA), cost-utility analysis (CUA), and cost-benefit analysis

(CBA).

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