Development of Health Technology assessemnt (HTA) framework for Rwanda

Abstract

This study deals with the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) in Rwanda especially for medical devices by developing a framework as well as a policy to be followed while carrying out decisionmaking on the incorporation of new technology or replacement of the existing technology. The developed framework shows how HTA could be used in decision-making when an institution or a hospital is planning to incorporate new technology, especially medical devices. The term Health Technology Assessment (HTA) refers to the systematic process of evaluating the properties, effects, and impacts of health technology. As a multidisciplinary process, it helps in the evaluation of the social, economic, organizational, and ethical aspects of health technology. This assessment looks at the benefits, efficacy, effectiveness, safety, appropriateness, and cost-effective analysis of the technology. It has the aim of developing the HTA framework for Rwanda through the establishment of national HTA policies including healthcare technology properties, economic attributes, and risk management in order to enhance the best health technology assessment in Rwanda. The specific objectives of this project were to identify challenges and gaps regarding the assessment of the health technology system in Rwanda using SWOT analysis. It proposes feasible solutions through the development of the HTA framework for Rwanda and develops the Health Technology Assessment policies in terms of healthcare technology properties, economic attributes, and risk management. As part of this thesis, a literature review was conducted to obtain more information related to the Health Technology Assessment. Furthermore, a questionnaire was used as the methodology to collect data that were needed for better performance of the thesis. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 21 and MS Excel. The chi-square test and Binary logistic regression analysis were used to test the correlation and significance between the variables (both dependent and independent) respectively. The alpha (𝛼) level of 0.05 was used to determine the statistical significance of the data. More generally, the result showed that there is a significant, and correlation or relationship between the dependent and the independent variables. The result showed that there is a need to adopt the use of HTA in decision-making while incorporating new technology or replacing the existing one, especially for medical devices and this should be done based on the framework. For future research, the developed framework needs to be validated through consultation with experts and policy-makers.