EHTP: improving health quality through health technology

Providing health care effectively and efficiently involves putting together a great variety of resource inputs. Inputs or health technologies (HT) are human and physical resources - facilities and equipment, and consumables including pharmaceuticals. In the complex health system environment, this wide range of technologies and related interventions produce an extraordinary array of different service outputs. The World Health Organization (WHO) embarked in mid-1990s on a major research and development initiative to design a methodology and tool that would allow for optimal, rational and systematic planning and management of healthcare technology interventions. These efforts culminated in the development of the Essential Healthcare Technology Package (EHTP),which has since been successfully applied in countries and by several WHO Technical Programs.