Health Technology Assessment: Choosing Which Treatments Get Funded

Explore the decision-making process behind healthcare technology assessment

Why are some treatments made available to patients while others are not?

On this course, you’ll explore how health technology assessment (HTA) informs whether we should have access to certain treatments on the NHS or other healthcare systems.

You’ll learn how decisions are made about which treatments are made available and the considerations that made surrounding benefits and costs.

This course is based on the University of Sheffield’s online distance-learning programme, the MSc International Health Technology Assessment. You can continue to learn about healthcare decision-making in our other online course Measuring and Valuing Health.

This course is designed for anyone who works in a medical or pharmaceutical profession, or who studies a healthcare subject such as medicine, nursing, healthcare or health economics and wants to better understand HTA.

This course will also be helpful for a patient or interested member of the public who wants to understand the HTA story behind the headlines.

You should have an interest in healthcare decision making and economics aspects, as this is at the core of HTA.

A basic familiarity with healthcare research will be helpful.

This course is designed for anyone who works in a medical or pharmaceutical profession, or who studies a healthcare subject such as medicine, nursing, healthcare or health economics and wants to better understand HTA.

This course will also be helpful for a patient or interested member of the public who wants to understand the HTA story behind the headlines.

You should have an interest in healthcare decision making and economics aspects, as this is at the core of HTA.

A basic familiarity with healthcare research will be helpful.

• Explore the assessment process for a new health technology and how this applies to a potential decision outcome.
• Explain the process behind decisions about which healthcare treatments are funded to a patient or member of the public.
• Investigate a health technology assessment (HTA) and understand the evidence presented.
• Contribute to an informed discussion about whether or not a new health technology is adopted and funded by the NHS, or other national healthcare system.