HTAi: An International Society for the promotion of health technology assessment

The current Latin America Policy Forum Chair’s term of office ends in November 2021; HTAi is now seeking to appoint a highly skilled and experienced successor. Successful candidates must have the trust of, and credibility among, both the international HTA agencies and health technology companies. The Latin America Policy Forum Chair is a paid position.

On October 13, HTAi hosted a live Q&A to answer all of your questions about the 2022 Annual Meeting Theme “Lifecycle Approach: Coming Together to Make it Happen.” Re-watch the webinar to hear members of the ISPC answer questions about the themes as you prepare your abstracts.

The Global Policy Forum has recently opened a call for nominations for the HTAi Global Policy Forum Organizing Committee to fill a not-for-profit vacancy. Global Policy Forum Organizing Committee members are required to commit to continued and diligent support of the content and development of Global Policy Forum meetings through input on the topic, agenda, the research, framing and reporting of the pre-meeting background paper, the identification of speakers, and several outputs of the meeting. Input will be provided by email and through approximately ten 90-minute meetings (by teleconference) per year ahead of the HTAi Global Policy Forum meeting in late January.

The HTAi Annual Meeting Team has been eagerly working behind the scenes to kick off HTAi’s 2022 Annual Meeting activities! As such, we have some exciting updates and timelines to provide to you.

The HTAi 2021 Annual Meeting may have taken place only a few months ago, but we are ready to start talking about the 2022 Annual Meeting! The HTAi 2022 Annual Meeting will take place on June 25-29, 2022, in Utrecht, Netherlands. The meeting will offer a hybrid event with on-site and virtual access to ensure everyone has the opportunity to join us.

Comprehensive reports of two panel sessions from the HTAi 2021 Annual Meeting on Digital Health Technologies – Evidence Needed, Methods & Assessment for Policy Decisions and Making Room for Disruptive Innovation – Priorities, Agility and Efficiency are now available on the HTAi website. Both reports consider aspects related to health system efficiency and sustainability, so do share them with your health care colleagues, even if they aren’t in the HTA community.

A tale of two pandemics: Neil Bertelsen, an HIV patient advocate reflects on the lessons learned from the HIV pandemic and asks why we are having to relearn some of these lessons today. What could be the role of HTA in partnering with the patient community to strengthen systems for the future?

We’ve officially made it to Day One of the 2021 Annual Meeting! If you joined us for a workshop or session this weekend, we hope you enjoyed your time! Two big events took place in between workshops this weekend: the Platform Orientation, and the Welcome Reception. If you missed the Platform Orientation and you’d like some tips on navigating the meeting platform, check out this video. The Welcome Reception took place on Sunday and included remarkable performances from UK artists The Ayoub Sisters, the Northern Chamber Orchestra, and Welsh Men’s Choir Only Men Aloud. Following the musical performances, attendees enjoyed interactive demonstrations from Creative Wellness and UK magician Duncan William— we hope you enjoyed yourself as much as we did!

See What Your Colleagues Are Saying! Day One was a big event on Twitter! Delegates had fun posing questions, sharing learning moments, and promoting their Panel, Oral, and Poster presentations. The HTAi Annual Meeting team is sharing and commenting on posts throughout the day. Search the official event hashtag, #HTAi2021VirtualAm, or visit HTAi on Twitter, @HTAiorg, to read what everyone was talking about!

Day Three features a keynote address from Dr Melanie Lee, CEO of LifeArc; five panel sessions; Symposia sessions from Vifor Pharma and Merck & Co. Ltd; Plenary Three: Innovating HTA to Support Novel Interventions; and award presentations followed by the Closing Ceremony.

Putting patients at the heart of Annual Meeting HTAi and its Patient and Citizen Involvement in HTA Interest Group’s (PCIG) have supported and encouraged patient participation at the annual meetings for several years. Now a working group is aiming to improve the experiences of patients who take part.

Since 2003, HTAi has held a yearly Annual Meeting providing opportunities for our members to gather to share the latest research, advance discussions in policy and methods, and build global networks around HTA. Ask anyone who has been lucky enough to attend an Annual Meeting and they will tell you it is a 5-day event packed with thought-provoking and cutting-edge conversations. It is also a chance to meet and learn from peers and leading experts in the HTA field.

The Deliberative Processes for HTA Joint Task Force is an HTAi - ISPOR initiative to develop a consensus definition for a deliberative process from an HTA perspective and internationally recognized good practise recommendations on the use of deliberative processes in HTA.

HTAi has outlined a three-point approach for supporting evidence generation collaborations, and policy decision making consistencies, including a response team to focus on topic-specific areas of interest and potentially lead and develop projects specifically focused on questions of relevance to the HTA community; webinars to support international collaboration and discussions on common current and horizon issues; online resources to share publicly available content from members.

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We are pleased to announce the first Asia Policy Forum consensus statement on Improving Access to High-Cost Technologies in the Asia Region has been developed and is now available.