The first experience in developing a training methodology for the hospital-based health technology assessment in Ukraine

Abstract

Health technology assessment in the world is increasingly conducted at the hospital level, where the costs, impacts and benefits of health technology can be directly assessed in a specific hospital. One of the urgent issues is the preparation of qualified hospital staff for the implementation of hospital-based HTA.

Aim. Develop and conduct the first training on hospital-based health technology assessment for hospital stakeholders of Ukraine.

Materials and methods. DACEHTA (англ. Danish Centre for Evaluation and Health Technology assessment) and AdHopHTA  (англ. Adopting hospital-based Health Technology Assessment) guidelines were included into the analysis. The methods of content analysis, systematization and data generalization were used.

Results. The first training on hospital-based HTA was conducted in the Regional Clinical Hospital named after O. O. Gerbachevsky of the Zhytomyr Regional Council. 9 hospital stakeholders were identified by preliminary semi-structured interview: the medical director of therapy, the medical director of surgery, the deputy director of economic, the head of the monitoring department, the representative of the information and statistics department, representatives of two clinical departments, of laboratory department and department of functional diagnostics.

The curriculum was build taking into account he basic HB-HTA skills needed for hospital specialist should possess and included 8 blocks, each lasting 1.5 hours. Each block consisted of both theoretical and practical components and finished with homework, which was discussed at the beginning of the next block. This approach enabled the participants to better assimilate the presented information and carefully complete the homework of each block.

Conclusions. The participants of the training noted that the use of hospital-based HTA is the most relevant issue today. Making management decisions based on HB-HTA will allow a more optimized hospital budget usage.  At the same time, the participants emphasized the importance of the work of a cross-functional team in conducting HB-HTA with the mandatory involvement of hospital economists.

Based on training participants and HTA international experts feedback, a two-week post-graduated course "Hospital-based HTA is a practical tool for making scientifically based decisions at the hospital level" was developed and approved in the NMU named after O.O. Bogomolets.