University Grants Commission secretary Rajnish Jain has written a letter to the vice chancellors of all universities and the principals of colleges and institutes to consider to implement the master course in Health Economics and Technology Assessment i.e. (M.Sc. (HETA) in their institution.
He wrote the letter on May 4, 2022 in this regard.
The Union Government has established Health Technology Assessment in India (HTAIn) that conducts Health Technology Assessment to facilitate the process of transparent and evidence-based decision making in the field of healthcare.
HTA is a globally accepted tool that analyses health technologies viz. medicines, deices, health programme etc. for their cost effectiveness, clinical-effectiveness, safety and equity issues.
HTA aims to support the formulation of safe and effective health policies that are patient focused and seek to achieve best value of money and improved patients’ health outcomes.
HTAIn has developed the Syllabus and Course Modules for this master course.
All the higher educational institutions may consider to implement the Master Course in
Health Economics and Technology Assessment i.e. (M.Sc. (HETA) in their departments/colleges/institutions.
Any assistance/help in the establishment of this course by means of technical support, study materials, delivering lectures and any other help as per requirement may be obtained from the website of Department of Health Research, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The Health Economics and Technology Assessment (HETA) course is formulated by the Health Technology Assessment India (HTAIn), DHR, Govt of India, New Delhi,
The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh, the ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai and approved by the Medical Technology Assessment Board.
The goal to introduce the course is to provide trained human resource with a critical understanding of the processes of HTA, to create trained human resource who can evaluate, economic, social and ethical impacts of health interventions, health policy or health technology and its role in priority setting.
The objective of the course is to provide students a broad understanding of the core areas of Health Economics and Technology Assessment, experiential learning using real-world examples, emphasizing India specific case studies, compared with other countries, experiences exchanged through seminars and discussions guided by experts as visiting professors and through student dissertation topics, which addresses some of current HTA questions in the country.
The need for the course in health technology assessment is rapidly expanding its scope for evidence-based policy decision making, there is need to conduct quality HTA studies to support healthcare policy decisions, there is limited or lack of trained human resource to undertake HTA studies in the country, there is largely limited HTA training facility or formal courses offered in the country.
Hence there is need to initiate the formal Masers level specialised degree progamme to cater the need the trained human resources in HTA.
