Implementing health technology assessment in Ghana to support universal health coverage: building relationships that focus on people, policy, and process
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Date
2019-11-28
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care
Abstract
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.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
Health technology assessment, Universal health coverage, Ghana, Capacity building
Citation
Cite this article: Hollingworth S, Gyansa- Lutterodt M, Dsane-Selby L, Nonvignon J, Lopert R, Gad M, Ruiz F, Tunis S, Chalkidou K (2020). Implementing health technology assessment in Ghana to support universal health coverage: building relationships that focus on people, policy, and process. International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care 36, 8–11. https://doi.org/ 10.1017/S0266462319000795