Mission Report: International Symposium on Health Technology Assessment and Side Meetings with Partners

The Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program (HITAP) has been supporting the development of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) in India since 2016 through different platforms and activities such as a high-level awareness raising event, a topic selection workshop, trainings on HTA and support on conducting HTA studies. The HTA development commitments have been facilitated in partnership with different academic and state level institutions namely the Health Technology Assessment in India (HTAIn) under the Department of Health Research (DHR), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and iDSI.

To reflect on the progress on HTA in the country, Government of India hosted an “International Symposium on Health Technology Assessment: Translating Knowledge and Best Practices into Policy for Evidence-Informed Decision making in Healthcare Sector for Universal Health Coverage” and invited international experts including Dr. Somsak Chunharas, Former Deputy Minister of Public Health Thailand and Advisor to HITAP, was invited by the Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW). In addition to this event, HITAP, under the leadership of Dr. Somsak Chunharas, met with partners in the country detailed in this Mission Report. This report summarises the activities during the visit to India on 7-11 December 2021, first on the symposium held on 10 December 20211, followed by the side meetings that were held on 8-10 December 2021.