Second meeting of the advisory group on health technology
8-9 November 2009, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Towards the development of national health technology programmes and needs assessment tools
The second technical advisory group on health technology (TAGHT) meeting was held prior to the 36th World Hospital Congress in Rio de Janeiro . The purpose was to follow up on the first meeting of the advisory group on health technology conducted in April 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland. The meeting convened participants and observers from 24 countries, 22 members of the TAGHT, 2 representatives from the medical device industry, and staff from 5 WHO Regional Offices and headquarters.
The specific meeting objectives were to: 1. Update participants on the health technology management tools under development since April 2009 2. Review the current challenges and strategies facing the pilot countries 3. Hold an interactive session for the group to present proposals for new tools based on information gathered from the earlier presentations and discussions.
Progress reports on the development of the tools were presented and discussed by the working groups. Additionally, further gaps in required guidelines and tools were identified and new working groups were formed to create the additional guidelines and tools. The working groups comprise policy development/formulation, policy implementation, needs assessment, procurement, donations, management software, nomenclature, documentation centre, interrelated database and maintenance, amongst them.
All of the tools will be tested in selected pilot countries. The 3rd TAGHT meeting will take place in Cairo in June 2010. The tools and implementation experiences will be discussed at the First Global Forum on Medical Devices in Bangkok, Thailand, 9-11 September 2010.