The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care. NICE is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department of Health and Social Care. UK NICE has worked with seven leading global organizations in launching their global initiative to promote evidence-based healthcare policy, practice and decision making. Our virtual event, themed “Strengthening COVID-19 Response in the Philippines through Health Technology Assessment,” marks our contribution to emphasizing the urgent need to collect, evaluate, and act on the recent stream of information amid the global crisis as the national health system strives to strengthen health emergency response efforts and achieve universal healthcare. For more information, visit this link.

The Health Information and Technology Assessment Program (HITAP) Thailand is a semi-autonomous research unit under Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health. Similar to HTA Philippines, the appraisals of HITAP inform policy decisions in Thailand. HITAP and HTA Philippines have been working closely since 2019. Key among our partnership initiatives include creating and finalizing the Philippine HTA Methods Guide. Further, HITAP supports HTA Philippines in various capacity building activities and webinars, and helps promote our work through online platforms.

HTAsiaLink is a collaborative research network of HTA agencies in the Asia-Pacific region established in September 2010. On the other hand, HTAsiaLink Annual Conference is the representative academic event that facilitates the exchange of knowledge and experience among member agencies, and identifies the development plan for the network the following year. The HTA Unit has been participating in its conferences and events even before the institutionalization through the UHC Law. In April 2019, four HTA research outputs were presented at the HTAsiaLink2019 conference; three of which won major awards.

As clinical safety and effectiveness is part of the criteria for HTAC recommendations, the Council partners with PSMID and the Institute of Clinical Epidemiology, National Institutes of Health, UP Manila, in its clinical assessments. The HTAC also uses the Philippine COVID-19 Living Recommendations document as a reference in the assessment of COVID-19 technologies. The Living Clinical Practice Guidelines (LCPG) is funded by the DOH Advancing Health through Evidence-Assisted Decisions with Health Policy and Systems Research (AHEAD-HPSR) Program through the DOST-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD).