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Health Technology Assessment Implementation in Ukraine: Current Status and Future Perspectives
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 October 2019
Abstract
The need for improving healthcare decision making by implementing health technology assessment (HTA) has been a top priority in Ukraine since 2016. This study sought to provide a tailor-made HTA implementation roadmap, drawing on insights from national stakeholders.
We conducted a survey using a questionnaire already applied in previous HTA research. We assessed the status of HTA when reforms were initiated in 2016 and examined perspectives on possible future developments among policy makers and representatives of pharmaceutical companies and patient organizations.
Thirty-two respondents answered the survey. Forty-eight percent of respondents were not aware of HTA training in Ukraine, but 91 percent preferred having either a graduate or postgraduate training. Experts stated that funding for HTA research and for critical appraisal of HTA submissions was limited, but in the future, they would increase funding mainly from public sources. A public HTA agency with academic support was the most preferred organizational structure. Eighty-eight percent of respondents opted for full transparency, making the HTA agency's recommendations and the related appraisal reports publicly available. A great majority of participants preferred mandating the use of local data in certain categories and indicated the importance of evaluating the transferability of international evidence. Healthcare priority and cost-effectiveness were the most important criteria for decisions, applied with a soft explicit threshold.
Ukraine is in the early phase of implementing HTA and our study provides a clear vision of national stakeholders about the future directions. In addition, learning from the experiences of other countries may help the implementation process.
- Type
- Policy
- Information
- International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care , Volume 35 , Issue 5 , 2019 , pp. 393 - 400
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019
Footnotes
The research project that was the basis of this manuscript was financially supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services (SIAPS). We acknowledge the valuable input from all stakeholders in Ukraine who completed the survey. The content of this publication reflects solely on the authors' views and authors take full responsibility for potential errors in the manuscript. All authors attest that (1) each author contributed to the conception and design or analysis and interpretation of data and the writing of the paper; (2) each has approved the version being submitted; and (3) the content has not been published nor is being considered for publication elsewhere.
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