The Health Strategy and Policy Institute held the sixth annual conference “Asia Health Technology Assessment Network” (HTAsiaLink)
The HTAsiaLink is a collaborative regional network consisting of more than 20 agencies in 15 different countries in Asia and Pacific region that performs health technology assessment (HTA).HTAsiaLink has been organising annual conferences since 2012 and member countries take turns to organise and host the conference. The 6th HTAsiaLink Annual Conference takes place in Hanoi from 17th to 19th April 2017 by the Health Strategy and Policy Institute (HSPI) – the focal agency for the assessment of medical technology in Vietnam. The theme of this year conference is “Health Technology Assessment in designing and implementing Benefit Package for Universal Health Coverage”. The conference is an international forum for the evaluation of medical technology in the development and implementation of the Basic Health Care Package, through which participants exchange and learn experiences from countries in issues related to this topic.
Participants from 18 countries, including members of the HTAsiaLink network; International organizations; Leaders of Departments under the Ministry of Health of Vietnam; Representatives from Medical and Pharmaceutical Universities, Public Health University; Representatives of the Vietnam General Medical Association and a number of press in Hanoi. 3 conference plenary session with the theme: Building health benefits package; Implement Health Care Package towards universal health care; Monitor and supervise the implementation of the health benefits package. In addition, the conference also has several sessions with topics: Health Economics Assessment in the treatment of hepatitis C; Introducing books building health benefits package ... and presentation of research results relevant.
At the plenary session on 17/4/2017, Assoc. Ph.D. Pham Le Tuan - Deputy Minister of Health and Dr. Suwit Wibulpolprasert, Vice President of Thai Health Technology Development Assessment Fund, co-chaired the conference. At this meeting, the reporters from Thailand, Malaysia, etc. shared their experiences in the design of the health benefits package. Dr. Nguyen Khanh Phuong, representative of the Health Strategy and Policy Institute, introduced the development of the Basic Health Care Package in Vietnam. Also within the framework of the conference, experts from the University of Toronto, Hitotsubashi University presented the results of the study on the health economics assessment of the Health Benefits Package; Experts from the University of Adelaide and Dr. Khuong Anh Tuan, deputy director of the Institute of Health Strategy and Policy, presented the findings of the research on the health system.
At the meeting, Deputy Minister of Health Pham Le Tuan highly appreciated the contributions of the members of the Asian Technology Assessment Network (HTAsiaLink). The precious experience of the difficulties and challenges as well as the results of the design of health benefits package for Vietnam has given Vietnam lessons to develop and implement the health benefits package towards the people with a goal of equity and efficiency. He also hoped that the Ministry of Health and HTAsiaLink would have more co-operation in the future.
