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Institutionalising health technology assessment: establishing the Medical Technology Assessment Board in India
  1. Laura E Downey1,
  2. Abha Mehndiratta1,
  3. Ashoo Grover2,
  4. Vijay Gauba3,
  5. Kabir Sheikh4,
  6. Shankar Prinja5,
  7. Ravinder Singh2,
  8. Francoise A Cluzeau1,
  9. Saudamini Dabak6,
  10. Yot Teerawattananon6,
  11. Sanjiv Kumar7,
  12. Soumya Swaminathan2,4
  1. 1 Global Health and Development, Imperial College London, London, UK
  2. 2 Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi, Delhi, India
  3. 3 Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi, Delhi, India
  4. 4 Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi, Delhi, India
  5. 5 PGIMER, Chandigarh, Punjab, India
  6. 6 Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program, Nonthaburi, Thailand
  7. 7 National Health Systems Resource Centre, Delhi, India
  1. Correspondence to Dr Laura E Downey; l.downey{at}ic.ac.uk

Abstract

India is at crossroads with a commitment by the government to universal health coverage (UHC), driving efficiency and tackling waste across the public healthcare sector. Health technology assessment (HTA) is an important policy reform that can assist policy-makers to tackle inequities and inefficiencies by improving the way in which health resources are allocated towards cost-effective, appropriate and feasible interventions. The equitable and efficient distribution of health budget resources, as well as timely uptake of good value technologies, are critical to strengthen the Indian healthcare system. The government of India is set to establish a Medical Technology Assessment Board to evaluate existing and new health technologies in India, assist choices between comparable technologies for adoption by the healthcare system and improve the way in which priorities for health are set. This initiative aims to introduce a more transparent, inclusive, fair and evidence-based process by which decisions regarding the allocation of health resources are made in India towards the ultimate goal of UHC. In this analysis article, we report on plans and progress of the government of India for the institutionalisation of HTA in the country. Where India is home to one-sixth of the global population, improving the health services that the population receives will have a resounding impact not only for India but also for global health.

  • Health economics
  • Health policy
  • Health systems evaluation

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon this work, for commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2016-000259

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors This article was drafted based on the collective experience of the authors in planning and working towards establishing MTAB in India. This initiative is led by the Indian MHFW by SS, Secretary DHR and VG, Joint Secretary DHR. Technical advice and support is provided to DHR by the International Decision Support Initiative (IDSI). LD drafted the first version of the manuscript. AM, AG, VG, KS, SP, FAC, SD, YT, SK and SS provided editorial feedback and comments.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement This study contains no unpublished data.