The State government recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for three years with the Union health ministry’s Department of Health Research. The objective is to undertake Health Technology Assessment (HTA). The Department of Health Research has set up India’s first HTA agency, Medical Technology Assessment Board (MTAB), to assess cost-effectiveness of health interventions.

MTAB aims to reduce the cost in patient care, expenditure on medical equipment, overall cost of medical treatment, reduction in out-of-pocket expenditure of patients and streamline the medical reimbursement procedures.

As part of the agreement, it will assess medical devices, drugs, medical and surgical procedures. The assessment will include evaluation of medical effectiveness, cost effectiveness, efficacy, safety, psychological, social, ethical organisational and economic aspects of it. The results of these evidence-based studies will be used for policy-making.

Every state government, agency, health programme, for example, the Non-Communicable Disease Programme and the National Vector-Borne Disease Control Programme can use HTA to understand how best their resources can be used.