Introduction
The Government of India is committed to extend healthcare services to its 1.38 billion population as part of India’s Universal Health Coverage (UHC) agenda. The National Health Policy has recommended an increase in public spending on healthcare services from existing 1.15 percent to 2.5 percent of GDP. It notes that this can significantly reduce the out-of-pocket-expenditure of the overall healthcare spending. With such a challenge, it is essential for the government to ensure optimal utilization of existing resources to ensure that the greatest amount of health is generated for every rupee spent. To facilitate the process of transparent and evidence informed decision making in the field of health, Government of India has created an institutional arrangement called the Health Technology Assessment in India (HTAIn) under the Department of Health Research (DHR) for evaluation of appropriateness and cost effectiveness of available and new health technologies in the country as part of research governance mandate of the Department.
HTA is a widely used methodology for optimization of resource allocation in Health. It is a multidisciplinary process that summarizes evidence and information on medical (clinical effectiveness), economic (cost effectiveness), social and ethical issues related to the use of a health technology in a systematic, transparent, unbiased, robust manner.
Health Technology Assessment in India (HTAIn)
Health Technology Assessment in India (HTAIn) is a sub-scheme under the umbrella scheme Human Resource and Capacity Building in the 15th Financial Commission approved for year 2021-22 to 2025-26 under the Department of Health Research (DHR), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India to facilitate the process of transparent and evidence-informed decision making in the field of healthcare. HTAIn is entrusted with the responsibility to analyses health technologies viz. medicines, devices and health programmes for its cost-effectiveness, clinical-effectiveness and equity issues by means of Health Technology Assessment (HTA), and in turn help in decision making for an efficient use of the limited health budget and provide people access to the quality health care reducing their out of pocket expenditures (OOPs) on health.
Objectives and Significance of HTAIn
- To undertake HTA studies aiming at 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.
- Develop systems and mechanisms to assess new and existing health technologies by a transparent and inclusive process.
- 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.
Structure of HTAIn
Health Technology Assessment in India (HTAIn) consists of an in-house HTAIn Secretariat, Board, Technical Appraisal Committee (TAC) and Regional Resource Centres (RRCs). For more details, visit us at https://htain.dhr.gov.in
Resource Centres (RRCs)
Resource Centres have been established in Government research institutes to conduct HTA and other multi-centric studies allocated by HTAIn Secretariat.
- Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh.
- Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi
- All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur
- Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH), Gandhinagar
- National Institute of Virology, Pune
- National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health (NIRRH), Mumbai
- National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research, Karnataka
- Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) Bengaluru
- Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), Trivandrum
- Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry.
- National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT), Chennai
- National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai
- Indian Institute of Public Health, Hyderabad
- Kalam Institute of Technology (KIT), Hyderabad
- Regional Medical Research Center (RMRC), Bhubaneswar
- Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH), Shillong
- State Cancer Institute and King George Medical University, Lucknow
- All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh
- Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi
- Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College, Kangra
Figure 1: HTAIn Resource Centres
Policy Briefs
Policy Brief vol 1 (Link to pdf)
Policy Brief vol 2 (Link to pdf)
Guidelines HTAIn
Guidelines (Link to pdf (712.94KB))
HTAIn Videos
1. Introduction to HTAIn
2. Journey of HTAIn
Concerned Officers dealing with HTAIn Scheme
- List of HTAIn Board Members (Link to pdf (65.33KB))
- List of HTAIn TAC Members (Link to pdf(410.04KB))
- Director in charge: Shri Biswabandan Senapati (b[dot]senapati[at]nic[dot]in, +91 11 23736087)
- Scientist in charge: Dr. Kavitha Rajsekar (kavitha[dot]rajsekar[at]nic[dot]in, +91 11 23736906)