Training of specialists of Health Technology Assessment: experience of foreign countries

Abstract

According to the main values of international HTA organizations regarding the development of scientific potential and training of specialists in this field and taking into account the conditions of implementation of medical technology assessment in Ukraine, the scientific interest includes the professional training of HTA users and developers. In this regard, the need of studying the foreign experience and best practices in the use of various curricula, the introduction of forms, methods and technologies is actualized. The author pays special attention to the issue of training these specialists in the system of postgraduate education.
 The aim of the article was to analyze the use of modern forms, methods and technologies in vocational education and training of specialists in the assessment of medical technologies.
 Materials and methods of the research were strategic programs of EU and Ukraine development, normative and legal documents regulating the implementation of HTA, legislative acts on education development in Ukraine, publications in scientometric databases of Scopus, Web of Science and others.
 Research methods used: systematic search of information using search engines, databases and websites by keywords; content analysis of documents; situational and comparative analysis; generalization; prognostication.
 According to the results of the analysis of scientific works, the study of international experience revealed that in foreign countries all types of education are used to train specialists in HTA: formal, non-formal, informal. It was found out that the most common forms of obtaining this specialty in the system of formal education are bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, training of doctors of philosophy. At the same time, for the training of such specialists in the middle-income countries, the programs of various duration in the system of non-formal education are used the most often. Among them: courses, trainings, seminars, internships, apprenticeships, mentoring, etc. Certification upon completion of the training is required.
 Based on the foreign experience and the analysis of scientific literature, the feasibility of creating and implementing various programs (long-term and short-term, in-service and non-in-service, distance, extramural, full-time, etc.) of the HTA specialists’ training in non-formal education completion of training was proved.