TY - JOUR
T1 - Implementing health technology assessment in Ghana to support universal health coverage
T2 - Building relationships that focus on people, policy, and process
AU - Hollingworth, Samantha
AU - Gyansa-Lutterodt, Martha
AU - Dsane-Selby, Lydia
AU - Nonvignon, Justice
AU - Lopert, Ruth
AU - Gad, Mohamed
AU - Ruiz, Francis
AU - Tunis, Sean
AU - Chalkidou, Kalipso
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Ghana is one of the few African countries to enact legislation and earmark significant funding to establish universal health coverage (UHC) through the National Health Insurance Scheme, although donor funds have declined recently. Given a disproportionate level of spending on medicines, health technology assessment (HTA) can support resource allocation decisions in the face of highly constrained budgets, as commonly found in low-resource settings. The Ghanaian Ministry of Health, supported by the International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI), initiated a HTA study in 2016 to examine the cost-effectiveness of antihypertensive medicines. We aimed to summarize key insights from this work that highlights success factors beyond producing purely technical outputs. These include the need for capacity building, academic collaboration, and ongoing partnerships with a broad range of experts and stakeholders. By building on this HTA study, and with ongoing interactions with iDSI, HTAi, WHO, and others, Ghana will be well positioned to institutionalize HTA in resource allocation decisions and support progress toward UHC.
AB - Ghana is one of the few African countries to enact legislation and earmark significant funding to establish universal health coverage (UHC) through the National Health Insurance Scheme, although donor funds have declined recently. Given a disproportionate level of spending on medicines, health technology assessment (HTA) can support resource allocation decisions in the face of highly constrained budgets, as commonly found in low-resource settings. The Ghanaian Ministry of Health, supported by the International Decision Support Initiative (iDSI), initiated a HTA study in 2016 to examine the cost-effectiveness of antihypertensive medicines. We aimed to summarize key insights from this work that highlights success factors beyond producing purely technical outputs. These include the need for capacity building, academic collaboration, and ongoing partnerships with a broad range of experts and stakeholders. By building on this HTA study, and with ongoing interactions with iDSI, HTAi, WHO, and others, Ghana will be well positioned to institutionalize HTA in resource allocation decisions and support progress toward UHC.
KW - Capacity building
KW - Ghana
KW - Health technology assessment
KW - Universal health coverage
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85082715671&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0266462319000795
DO - 10.1017/S0266462319000795
M3 - Review article
C2 - 31775950
AN - SCOPUS:85082715671
SN - 0266-4623
VL - 36
SP - 8
EP - 11
JO - International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care
JF - International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care
IS - 1
ER -