The 2 days policy course from June 3-4, 2026 in Shanghai, China is co-organized by the Asia-Pacific Network for Health Systems Strengthening (ANHSS) in collaboration with Fudan University and the Centre for Health Systems and Policy Research at the JC School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Globally, up to 40% of healthcare spending is wasted due to inefficiencies in national healthcare systems, such as funding of inappropriate health interventions, overtreatment, inefficient coordination of healthcare services across providers, pricing failures, administrative waste and fraud. Such inadequate and unproductive spending not only exacerbates patient’s catastrophic health spending, but can also hinder progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Prioritizing efficient health spending will be required to achieve UHC, as countries face difficult decisions on how best to integrate and finance effective, innovative technologies & health services into health benefit packages (HBP), and make the necessary trade-offs between competing health priorities for the population.

Health Technology Assessment (HTA) has emerged as an important policy tool to support evidence-informed decision-making in healthcare systems. HTA is defined as a multidisciplinary process that uses explicit methods to determine the value of a health technology at different points in its lifecycle, encompassing medicines, medical devices, diagnostic tools, procedures, and health service interventions. By systematically assessing multiple dimensions including clinical effectiveness, safety, cost-effectiveness, and broader social, ethical, and organizational implications, HTA provides a comprehensive evidence base for evaluating whether and how health technologies should be adopted, reimbursed, or scaled within a healthcare system. The overarching purpose of HTA is to inform policy and resource allocation decisions in ways that promote an equitable, efficient, and high-quality sustainable health system. As healthcare costs continue to rise and technological innovation accelerates, many countries have increasingly institutionalized HTA to enhance transparency, accountability of rational priority setting in health spending.

To improve health system performance, the WHO and the International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI) have urged that HTA should be a distinct component in the priority-setting (PS) process and be an important means through which UHC can be achieved and secured (Global Survey on HTA by National Authority, WHO 2015). In evaluating the value and cost-effectiveness of specific technologies (drugs, devices, procedures) to address health problems, HTA provides the evidence base to inform the design of a HBP. HTA facilitates the identification of the values among the choice of services or interventions to meet population health needs in a financially sustainable and efficient way. However, HTA’s role lies primarily in providing technical assistance in a demand-driven manner. In the absence of a formal prioritization system, the maximal benefits of HTA’s potential are not achieved.

Priority setting (PS) in health care is a research and practice area at the intersection of medicine, ethics, and economics, which aims to systematically and transparently evaluate the value for money of health services to support fair resource allocation. Although it has a long history in clinical ethics, the practice of priority setting at the health system level began in earnest only in the early 1990s. PS acts a deliberative filter and is a decision hub. It uses HTA evidence to make ethical and political choices about which services to include in the HBP. It uses HTA to rank services and products based on criteria such as disease burden, budget impact, and equity. PS tells what is most important for the population health.

Strategic purchasing (SP) is a health financing mechanism and strategy that seeks to align funding and financial incentives with guaranteed health services, often determined through detailed information on the performance of service providers and the health needs of the population served. SP is deliberately directing health funds to populations, priorities interventions, and services, and actively creating incentives so funds are used by providers equitably and in alignment with a population’s health needs. SP of high-priority health care services can be a powerful means for quality improvement of health benefit package and advancing UHC goals. Quality Improvement functions as the continuous feedback loop. It monitors the real-world performance of the purchased services. Quality improvement data reveals gaps in care or ineffective practices, which then become new topics for Priority Setting or HTA. It drives for continuous health system performance improvement.

The course provides an overview of the HTA process from theory to implementation to application, with teachings on how HTA, Priority Setting and Strategic Purchasing together can be leveraged to strengthen governance and advance UHC. By demonstrating how evidence is generated, priorities are economically evaluated, and how purchasing mechanisms can be aligned with national strategic goals, the course provides a clear framework for more transparent, accountable and fiscally responsible decision making. Participants will be equipped with the knowledge to design and lead systems to encourage efficient resource allocation, incentivize high quality service delivery, and ensure that health benefit packages remain equitable, financially sustainable, and responsive to population needs. Case studies on country experiences of HTA application based on the different health system designs are presented for learning.

Kursus ini akan memberikan peserta:

1. Comparative country experiences in institutionalizing HTA within reimbursement decisions and health benefit package development, highlighting governance mechanisms, stakeholder engagement, and capacity strengthening strategies.
2. Core methodological foundations of Health Technology Assessment, including evidence synthesis for safety and effectiveness, economic evaluation, and budget impact analysis to support transparent and accountable healthcare decision-making.
3. Practical application of HTA tools and analytical platforms, including meta-analysis using RevMan and economic modeling with Excel, to translate clinical and economic evidence into policy-relevant outputs.
4. An integrated value chain model of the conceptual linkage of HTA, priority Setting, strategic purchasing and quality improvement to advance Universal Health Coverage
5. Key consideration, criteria and steps for prioritization and the framework to strengthen the institutionalization and capacity required for evidence-informed priority setting (EIPS).
6. An introduction of the evidence-based approach and policy components to facilitate the implementation and strategic decision of purchasing and a tracking framework and toolkit systematically assess the purchasing functions of health services.