HTAi Annual Meeting in Bilbao.

The Congress, which was held last year in Brazil and arrive at Korea in the South and Washington after passing by Bilbao, marks the managers of the international health agenda and its conclusions have a direct influence on health systems and care to their patients.

In his speech, Iñaki Gutierrez-Ibarlucea stressed that during those days they met in Bilbao to discuss health policy about 1,300 delegates from more than 50 countries, and resulted in a journal entry for the city of nearly 2.5 million euros ”.

In addition, stressed that thanks to the technical secretariat, Ercisa, and the Euskalduna Palace, has been the first fully sustainable Congress, in an attempt to minimize the environmental impact.

for his part, José Asua, Director of knowledge management and evaluation of the Basque Government, said that the conclusions of this Congress health health technology optimization decision-making will help ”.

HTA is a society that was born in 2004, as a continuation of INAHTA (International Network of Agencies for Health Technology Assessment). HTA is a field of scientific research that provides the information to substantiate the policies and health decision-making on scientific criteria in terms of safety, effectiveness, accessibility, and equity. More than 30 years to meet to make health decisions that affect the whole of society ”.

The meeting has been the most important meeting of the year ”. Bilbao his candidacy two years ago as a way to highlight the work Osteba (Basque Government health technology assessment service) carried out for 20 years. Osteba was established in the fall of 1992 with the aim of promoting the appropriate use of health technology in terms of safety, effectiveness, accessibility, and equity, providing information needed for decision-making.

For Asua, this commitment to health has been made only from your Department, but that also industry and the different Councils have created the Basque industrial fabric necessary to promote the health, employment and wealth of related industries, both in information, development, etc. ”.

In this sense indicated HTAi Annual Meetting aistieron some 1,300 people, of which 90% were international; the Congress was developed 100% in English ”, stressed. In the scientific area received 953 communication opportunities, it has opted for electronic formats that prevented the printing of 30,000 sheets, what made the individual spending ”, developed 17 training activities, the Congress was attended by 18 stands in the commercial area and held around 30 parallel meetings.

One of them, the Health Policy Forum (Forum of health policies of the HTAi) meeting which took place behind closed doors, did June 17 Sunday door open for the first time. In addition, once the HTAi Annual Meetting began another great meeting in the Euskalduna about opportunities in health, the Ambient Assisting Living (ALL).

For its part, Clifford Goodman, President of the HTAi and Adviser of the Obama management for health care reform said in his speech that in recent years there are a number of factors of demand of health technology assessments, including: the ageing of the population, growth in emerging middle classes, the increase in drug companies working on these issues, the increasing use of medications without a label used in the wrong way, abuse and excessive use of technologies or the increase in prices ”.

The HTA aims to promote the appropriate use of health technology in terms of safety, effectiveness, accessibility, and equity, providing information needed for decision-making. Practical examples include programmes of early detection through PSA prostate cancer, or through mammography breast cancer screening programmes.

Goodman stressed the growth of HTA in South America, China, or Japan, and the participation of different types of professionals: health, economists, academics … also stressed the importance of services as Osteba, an example worldwide in information management ” and the relationship of hypertension with personalized medicine, that fits the characteristics of each patient the medicine ”.

All to contribute to good practices in health technology. Because the same is not practices as the best: best may be good for one but not for other ”.

Goodman finished his speech appealing to the importance of the work of the evaluators in times of crisis such as that we are living. He gave as an example China, where the contrasts between the rural and urban populations are very accentuated what they raise different health problems that the appropriate use of health technology could help solve.

For more information about the event please visit www.htai2012.org.