[The curriculum Health Technology Assessment (HTA)]

Information derived from Health Technology Assessment (HTA) reports is increasingly used for decision-making in healthcare. The production of HTA reports requires well-qualified interdisciplinarily working specialists who are not yet available in sufficient number. The German HTA Society and the German Network for Evidence Based Medicine have now developed an HTA curriculum which may serve as a basis for training courses for users of HTA information as well as HTA authors. Structure and content of the curriculum were inspired by internationally established training courses. However, the specific aspects of technology regulation and decision-making in the healthcare systems of German-speaking countries are emphasised. The curriculum is subdivided into a total of 11 modules. These include principles of HTA, status and regulation of technologies, priority setting, management of knowledge and information, methods of conducting HTA reports and project management. In the next step, the application of the curriculum into an Internet-based training course is planned.