Priority setting in health technology assessment in Thailand: experience from the health intervention and technology assessment program

Abstract

Health technology assessment (HTA), a method aims at excessively assessing impacts that arises from the use and implementation of health technology as well as healthrelated policy, is a type of research that is widely accepted around the globe. HTA is considered a useful tool for decision making given that the assessment results are truly employed in policy development. However, demand for HTA is currently exceeding restricted capacity to perform HTA. Thus, it is incredibly important for research organizations with limited resources to prioritise its research topics.
        This article is to reveal three years experience regarding topic prioritisation and selection that is annually carried out by the Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program (HITAP). This article describes the prioritizing process including determining objective of this activity, listing potential stakeholders, framing selection criteria, and in the end, further step after the process is illustrated.
        Topic prioritisation and selection process consists of four key principles namely, (1) the entire process and results must be transparent and open for the public to be monitored (2) the prioritisation process as well as the prioritised list should reflect benefits of the society, (3) the participation from stakeholders is an important key for the results to be accepted widely (4) the revision of the entire process is believed to improve the process in the future, moreover this will create benefits for the society.
         The research topic prioritisation and selection is an important process which is feasible to achieve, moreover it can be performed in all levels in every organization. Although this presented case study is from a research organization that produces evidence for decision making in national level, the provided experience can be applied and adopted in other research institutions.