Details descriptions of the session:
Digitalisation has disrupted our everyday lives, and the future of the health sector is being shaped by technological advances in the field. During the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine gained importance as it was able to bridge the gap for care when social distancing policies were in place. Additionally, the recent surge in the development and use of innovations like personalised medicine and AI in diagnostics are undoubtedly reshaping the healthcare landscape. The rapid pace of innovation, however, poses challenges to healthcare priority setting, potentially exceeding the healthcare system’s capacity to thoroughly assess and integrate novel tools. Consequently, healthcare systems need to be prepared to effectively navigate the inevitable changes prompted by these advancements.
In this context, this session will seek to learn from different countries about their experiences of regulating and evaluating innovative technologies. The key questions to be explored during the session are:
- What are the types of digital health technologies and how are they being considered/evaluated for use in public health programmes?
- How do these methods or approaches differ for digital health technologies compared to assessing traditional health technologies? What are other considerations that ought to be taken into account to assess digital health technologies?
- What are the challenges in assessing digital health technologies and setting priorities? How do they vary across country contexts and capacities?
This session topic relates to the sub-theme of “The Power of Possibility: Prioritizing Healthcare’s Emerging Innovations.
Learning objectives and target audience:
Learning objectives:
- Understand potential of digital health technologies and the issues related to their assessment for public use;
- Exploring adaptable and resilient strategies to help evolve HTA practices in alignment with healthcare advancements
Target audience: Researchers, practice managers
Structure of presentation:
Type: Presentation, followed by a small group discussion.
A pre-conference survey will be circulated among various stakeholders, including users and suppliers of HTA, to distill various challenges in HTA and public financing of digital health technologies. This will ensure that various perspectives on the challenges and opportunities associated with innovative health technology tools are adequately captured. The finding of the survey will be further deliberated during this session.
The tentative agenda is as follows:
- Introduction of session (Annapoorna Prakash, HITAP) (10 mins)
- Key trends and challenges in HTA decisions about highly innovative technology (25 mins)
- – Presentation 1: Innovative HTA in Korea for digital health technologies: A novel approach Dr. Jooyeon Park, National Evidence-based Healthcare Collaborating Agency (NECA), Rep. of Korea
- – Presentation 2: Value assessment and reimbursement of digital health solutions: A case study from Australia
- – Presentation 3: Pioneering Tomorrow: Early HTA in the Era of Innovative Digital Health Technology Dr. Yot Teerawattananon, Secretary General and Co-founder, HITAP, Thailand
- Challenges in Health Technology Assessment of Innovative Health Technologies (Annapoorna Prakash, HITAP) (10 mins)
- Strategies for Adaptable and Resilient HTA Systems (Participants break into groups to discuss how the presented challenges can be addressed in their specific context while also identifying additional barriers and solutions) (25 mins)
- Summary and conclusion (Annapoorna Prakash, HITAP) (5 mins)
