Mission Report: Workshop on Economic Evaluation in Healthcare in Chandigarh

The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) requested HITAP to provide technical support to a national workshop on the use of economic evaluation analyses and research for decision making in healthcare in India. The workshop ran for four days and covered the different types of economic evaluations, practical application of the concepts, and
communication of the results. The participants, coming from academia and public health institutes from different states, grasped the concepts of the highly technical workshop. A one-day symposium was also conducted to learn from the perspectives of hospital administrators and clinicians as well as state government officials to understand the health system context. Potential applications of economic evaluation as well as health technology assessment (HTA) in the country were discussed. The HITAP team found that participants in the workshop showed much promise in terms of capacity in conducting HTA. In the long-run, HTA may feasibly be implemented through the state governments as health is a state subject; however, in the short-run, a national HTA body
coordinating research for policy throughout the country could prove useful.