New Delhi, India
“At HTAIn, our vision is to enable effective, affordable and evidence-based healthcare decisions across India. We are committed to generating robust scientific evidence that empowers policymakers at both national and state levels to prioritize health interventions that deliver the greatest value for every rupee spent—ensuring better health outcomes for all.”
History:
The need to establish a Medical Technology Assessment Board (MTAB) was recommended by 12th Plan Working Group on Health Research and also by the Planning Commission (now NITI Aayog) in its 12th Plan document on Social Sector. The Standing Committee of Parliament in its 56th Report on the Examination of Demand for Grant of DHR for the year 2012-13 has emphasized early setting up of MTAB. The National Health Policy, 2017 has also highlighted the importance of HTA by stating ‘One important capacity with respect to introduction of new technologies and their uptake into public health programmes is health technology assessment. Established in 2017, HTAIn has extended support to various verticals (e.g., Maternal Health, Child Health etc.) of the health ministry at the center and also at state level, in evidence-based decision making.
Structure:
Health Technology Assessment in India (HTAIn) consists of an in-house HTAIn Secretariat, Board, Technical Appraisal Committee (TAC), 8 Regional Resource Hubs ,19 Regional Resource Centres (RRCs) across India and 10 Technical Partners (TPs).
Mission:
- Maximising health in the population, reducing out of pocket expenditure (OOP) and reducing inequity.
- To support the process of decision-making in health care at the Central and State policy level by providing reliable information based on scientific evidence. o Develop systems and mechanisms to assess new and existing health technologies by a transparent and inclusive processes.
- To appraise health interventions and technologies based on available data on resource use, cost, clinical effectiveness, and safety.
- To collect and analyse evidence in a systematic and reproducible way and ensure its accessibility and usefulness to inform health policy.
- Disseminate research findings and resulting policy decisions to educate and empower the public to make better informed decisions for health.
How the agency works:
Health Technology Assessment in India (HT3AIn) is institutionalised as an attached office in the Department of Health Research of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India. Health Technology Assessment(HTA) policy briefs approved by the HTAIn Board are sent from the HTAIn Secretariat to Principal Health Secretaries of all States in India for consideration for implementation in each State.
HTAIn has established 19 resource centres and 06 resource hubs (upgraded resource centres) across the country monitored by the HTAIn Secretariat, with the mandate of liasing with the State Governments so that State specific issues or HTA topics can be taken up and addressed by one of the HTAIn resource centres or hubs. The HTA undertaken by the resource centres is critically apprised by the HTAIn Technical Appraisal committee (TAC), recommended after due processes to the HTAIn Board which approves it for implementation in different States. The HTA policy briefs and outcome reports approved by the HTAIn Board are circulated to the user department (different State governments or Central Government agencies) for implementation.
HTA Sensitisation and dissemination meetings with State Government officials are organised by HTAIn Secretariat for wider dissemination of the HTA policy briefs for adoption in States.
- Advisory Partnership: HTAIn functions as an advisory body to both national and state governments, providing scientific evidence to prioritize health interventions that align with public health goals.
- At the national level, HTAIn aligns its recommendations with the National Health Priorities including the goals of the National Health Policy (NHP) and the Ayushman Bharat scheme.
- At the state level it aims to prioritize interventions to state specific health needs
- Capacity Building: HTAIn helps strengthen institutional capacities for health technology assessment (HTA) at state and regional levels. Through State Sensitization workshops, officials are informed of the health technologies that have the potential for adoption. The organization facilitates stakeholder engagement, creating platforms for dialogue between government bodies, public health experts, and industry representatives.
- Evidence-Based Decision Support:
- HTAIn provides critical recommendations on health technologies that can help in resource allocation, inclusion of services in health insurance packages, by evaluating the cost-effectiveness of health technologies
- HTAIn plays an advisory role to states on scaling of health technologies.
Dissemination activities:
HTA recommended policy decisions are disseminated to Stakeholders via State Sensitisation Workshops, Meetings, International symposiums catering to Industry ,Governments and Academia, Workshops for Start ups & Research fraternity and Consultative Workshops with Patient groups, Methdology Experts etc.
A list of recently completed or milestone HTA reports:
Details of the below reports available https://htain.dhr.gov.in/completed-hta-studies.php
a. Safety Engineered Syringes
b. Long Acting Reversible Contraceptives
c. Portable ECG
d. Screening of Diabetes & Hypertension
Future plans:
Support Government of India to take evidence based policy decisions for providing affordable and accessible healthcare.
Country: India
Description of population served: National
Population served (mil): 1.4 Billion
Current HTA budget (SHTG and SMC) (mil USD): 2.76
Permanent staff (SHTG and SMC): 30
Consultants: 120
Ongoing TA projects: 71
Contact Information
Director/Head of Agency: Ms Anu Nagar
Contact person: Dr Kavitha Rajsekar
Department of Health Research
Ministry of Health & Family Welfare
Indian Red Cross Society Building
Red Cross Road ,New Delhi -110001
Internet: www.htain.dhr.gov.in
Email: htain-dhr@nic.in
Tel: +011-23736906, +011-23736905