International Activities
WHO Collaborating Center for Health Technology Assessment
The Medical Technology and Practice Patterns Institute was named a World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Health Technology Assessment in 1995, the first organization to be so designated. Its activities included national and international research emphasizing the assessment of emerging and new medical devices and pharmaceuticals and their policy implications.
In its role as a WHO Collaborating Center, the Institute sought to work with WHO and other WHO Collaborating Centers to improve the quality of health care in developing countries and those in economic transition by promoting HTA and providing assistance for its establishment in those countries. The biannual report for the WHO Collaborating Center is available online.
Activities
MTPPI was funded by the US National Library of Medicine (NLM) to update DIRLINE, the NLM's international health information referral database. DIRLINE encompasses all aspects of health, disease, and the biomedical sciences and includes information resources useful to health care providers, patients, health and consumer advocates, students, and researchers.
In 1998, MTPPI completed a worldwide survey of health technology assessment organizations. The results of this survey is published as a directory.
The Director of the WHO Collaborating Center, Dr. Sy Perry, was also a founder of the Special Interest Group on Developing Countries (SPIG/DC) within the International Society of Technology Assessment in Health Care.
The mission of the SPIG/DC is to focus attention on the health technology problems of the majority of the world's population and in helping to create a consensus of opinion on what needs to be done and how to go about it. Specifically, the SPIG seeks to develop the means of working with and assisting developing countries by promoting the appropriate use of health technology assessment (HTA) to improve the quality of health care and allocation of resources.
Publications
Some publications prepared by the Institute in this field are:
Implications of NAFTA for Trade in Health Care Technology.
Rational Use of Health Technologies, Mexico and the United States.