Introduction to Health Technology Assessment (FutureLearn)

You’ll find out what health technology assessment is, and how it’s used to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of new healthcare treatments.
You’ll look at the concept of Quality of Life (QoL) and how it’s measured, and explore the tough decisions governments face when choosing which treatments to fund.

What topics will you cover?

Week 1 – Introduction and what is HTA?

• A bit about you
• What is HTA?
• Examples of HTA
• Principles and stages of HTA
• Who conducts HTA?

Week 2 – Making decisions with HTA

• Measuring quality of life
• Whose health should we prioritise?
• Decision making using HTA
• Importance of perspective
• Identifying relevant costs

Week 3 – HTA in practice

• Important research themes
• HTA case study: findings and challenges

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

• Describe the multidisciplinary nature of Health Technology Assessment (HTA)
• Develop an appreciation for the diverse range of skills and knowledge involved at each stage of HTA
• Explain the concept of quality of life and understand how it can be measured
• Reflect that when working within a fixed health budget tough decisions have to be made
• Explore the concept of cost-effectiveness and how that can assist in making tough decisions in HTA

Who is the course for?
Introduction to Health Technology Assessment is open to anyone. No prior experience or qualifications are necessary. It may be particularly useful to recent graduates, who are interested in health research, but not sure which next steps to take.
While the Educators themselves aren’t available to facilitate this run, we encourage you to engage with other learners and there are opportunities to do this throughout the course.