A regional initiative, established in 2015, bringing countries from the Balkans to Central Asia together to inform health policy with systematic assessment of medical technologies.
Health technology assessment is a multidisciplinary field of policy analysis, which takes into account medical, economical, social, ethical, legal and organizational aspects of development, distribution or use of medical technology. In the last thirty years in some parts of the world, such as Europe and North America, it has become mandatory in the policy and health decisions. In recent years, HTA has spread rapidly in regions such as Latin America and Asia. Countries are contributing to the development of the field by establishing unity based on cultural and geographical proximity.
In recent activities of the EBM Association at the national and international level, a need to have an HTA initiative in Eurasia has been felt. In 2015, the Eurasian HTA Initiative was established with the leadership of the Turkish Evidence Based Medicine Society and the support of TİKA (Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency). The initiative included the countries extending from the Balkans to Central Asia that are thought to be new, but promising for the development of HTA.
The Eurasian HTA Initiative has organized two meetings since its establishment. The kick-off meeting was organized in Ankara, in March 2015 with participation of the following countries: Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey. The second meeting was organized in Istanbul, in November 2015 with participation of the above-mentioned countries except Azerbaijan. Albania also joined the meeting as a new member and Tunisia as an observer country. The Istanbul Statement was signed by all members at the same meeting.
The members are representatives of Ministries of Health or other governmental agencies in their countries and have extensive experience in quality improvement, EBM and/or HTA. They had backgrounds in medicine, pharmacy, nursing, management or economics with additional trainings on health policy, management, quality improvement, health economics and/or HTA.
The Green Park Hotel, Ankara
Haliç Congress Center, Istanbul