Adriana Velázquez – INAHTA Director (2007–2009)

Adriana Velázquez
MSc, CCE, General Director, CENETEC, Mexico

  

Adriana Velazquez is the founder and current director of the National Center for Excellence in Health Technology – an agency reporting to the Vice Minister of Quality and Innovation in the Ministry of Health in Mexico. This new unit was envisioned by Dr Julio Frenk (former minister) and Dr Ruelas (former ISQUA President and Vice Minister of Quality and Innovation) to help allocate health resources.

Adriana holds a bachelors degree in Biomedical Engineering from Universidad Iberoamericana and a Master in Science in Clinical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio (USA). Having 20 years of professional experience, Adriana helped develop the field of clinical engineering in Mexico. She received her certification in 1991, and since that time has been serving Latin America as a PAHO consultant in this field.

She has been president of the Biomedical Engineering Mexican Society, President of the Latin American Regional Council for Biomedical Engineering, and Chair of the Clinical Engineering Division of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering
Within the available infrastructure, Adriana has been striving to secure the most appropriate, safe, and effective technology to meet patient needs.

In May 2006, she presented a proposal which resulted in a resolution on health technologies that was later approved by the World Health Assembly (WHA60.R29) in May 2007.

Visions for INAHTA

  • To provide the ministries of health in the other 170 countries, UN and WHO members, with reliable, evidence based information on health technology assessment that they can use to benefit their populations and health economics
  • As a Collaborating Center, advise WHO concerning the methodology and information to comply with the WHA60.R29 resolution and support the member states
  • To interact with federations representing medical, biomedical engineering, and pharmaceutical professionals to share our knowledge and to support better clinical practice, specifically where the need is found
  • To promote HTA as a tool to help prioritize economic funding for preventive and clinical interventions
  • To further develop awareness among agencies and ministries to  consider social and ethical effects in addition to cost and clinical effectiveness when making public health policies.