Evidence-based health
decisions across Eurasia.

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 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 2015, the Eurasian HTA Initiative was established with the leadership of the Turkish Evidence Based Medicine Society. It included countries extending from the Balkans to Central Asia that were thought to be new, but promising for the development of HTA.

In recent activities of the EBM Association at the national and international level, a need to have an HTA initiative in Eurasia was identified. The initiative was established with the support of TİKA (Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency).

The Eurasian HTA Initiative organized two meetings since its establishment. The kick-off meeting was organized in Ankara in March 2015 with participation from Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey.

The second meeting was organized in Istanbul in November 2015 with participation from the above countries except Azerbaijan. Albania joined as a new member and Tunisia participated as an observer country.

Members were representatives of Ministries of Health or other governmental agencies in their countries. They had experience in quality improvement, evidence based medicine and health technology assessment, with backgrounds in medicine, pharmacy, nursing, management or economics.