Building sustainable health technology assessment capacity in Ukraine

Since the introduction of health technology assessment (HTA) in Ukraine, the international technical assistance project "Safe, Affordable, and Effective Medicines for Ukrainians" with financial contributions of the United States Agency for International Development has supported capacity building activities. In 2020, the main HTA stakeholders expressed interest in a comprehensive training program for HTA doers, users, and trainers.

To inform the design of a training program, the needs of forty HTA doers, users, and potential trainers were assessed using validated surveys. Identified knowledge gaps included comparative effectiveness, health economics, qualitative evidence synthesis, patient and public involvement, and ethical issues. Based on these results a tailored training program consisting of five modules was developed, including an introduction to HTA, as well as a train-the-trainers program.

During January-July 2023, seventy-five persons participated in the training program, while twelve HTA professionals followed the train-the-trainer program. We evaluated participants' self-reported knowledge and skill gains by asking about their confidence level in each learning objective at the beginning and end of each training module. For each module, a learning effect was observed among participants. Furthermore, the majority of trainers felt confident to provide the introductory module on HTA, while for the other modules only one or two trainers felt completely confident to teach the content.

Establishing a training program based on the needs of HTA doers, users, and trainers as developed for Ukraine can serve as inspiration for other countries that wish to attain sustainable HTA capacity.