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March 5, 2007
Health Sciences Research Master 2006-2007 - Maastricht University HTA Courses : Maastricht University, the Care and Public Health Research Institute (CAPHRI) and the faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine
Location: Maastricht, The Netherlands
Dates: 31 October - 19 December 2006, 3 January - 27 February 2007, 5 March - 24 April 2007
Maastricht University offers short courses as part of the two-year MPhil Health Sciences Research Master (HSRM), of which three courses in Health Technology Assessment (HTA). The HSRM offers a broadly orientated scientific training course for future researchers, developed by the research institute Caphri and capacity groups within both Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine, and prepares for a PhD education or research-orientated positions. The three HTA courses provide in-depth knowledge of and insight into theoretical and normative aspects of HTA, decision analysis techniques, cost-effectiveness analytical techniques and quality of life and utility measurements.
Junior researchers and alumni are welcomed to follow one or more of the three HTA courses. A brief description of each course follows below.
Course 1: General principles of Health Technology Assessment
Dates: 31 October - 19 December 2006
Global objective: To learn about the role and function of HTA in improving the health care sector, taking into account the production and distribution of health. This course provides the principles of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and an introduction to economic evaluation that will be extended in the second and third HTA-course. The field of HTA will be considered against the background of evidence-based medicine. HTA provides a broad perspective on the evaluation of new or existing health technologies that in principle can cover every activity in health care that is patient orientated, from individual patient interventions such as a specific drug to disease management and population based care programmes. In this unit the necessity of performing HTA will be discussed, the methods of performing HTA will be lectured, including the boundaries and limitations of HTA. The value of technologies can be assessed from different angles and in practice HTA is a multi-disciplinary field of science, in which the field of (health) economics plays a particular role. This unit is structured according to the Technology Assessment Iterative Loop, a planning cycles that places HTA in a broad perspective.
Teaching methods: In the form of problem-based learning. Group sessions (maximum of 10 students per group), lectures, training sessions, and weekly reports.
Study load: 40 contact hours (on Tuesdays) and 120 self-study hours in 8 weeks.
Examination: Individual examination with 3 or 4 ‘open’ questions, to be answered without books, and an assignment of the weekly report. The student will have to receive a sufficient grade for both parts of the examination. Both parts form 50% of the final judgment.
Course 2: Trial Based economic evaluations
Dates: 3 January - 27 February 2007
Objective: To learn about the in and outs of a full economic evaluation. This unit combines a deepening of understanding of the theoretical concepts with a hands-on training of the basic elements of a trial-based economic evaluation.
This course provides an in-depth explanation of full economic evaluations in all its steps based on effectiveness studies (cohort studies, case-control studies, randomised controlled trials). The focus is thus on how to perform trial-based economic evaluations, while in the third HTA course emphasis will be paid on economic evaluations based on decision-analytic modelling techniques. This unit is structured according to the basic steps that are considered necessary in trial-based economic evaluations.
Teaching methods: In the form of problem-based learning. Group sessions (maximum of 10 students), lectures, training sessions, and weekly reports.
Study load: 48 contact hours (on Tuesdays, except the first on Wednesday) and 112 self-study hours in 8 weeks.
Examination: Individual examination with 3 or 4 ‘open’ questions, to be answered without books, and an assignment of the weekly report. The student will have to receive a sufficient grade for both parts of the examination. Both parts form 50% of the final judgment.
Course 3: Cost-effectiveness modelling methods
Dates: 5 March - 24 April 2007
Objective: To learn about the in and outs of decision analytic modelling methods in health economic evaluation. This unit combines a deepening of understanding of the theoretical concepts with a hands-on training of the basic elements of a decision analytic cost-effectiveness model.
This provides an in-depth teaching programme of model based economic evaluations. The focus is on the principles of cost-effectiveness modelling methods; on how to choose the accurate type of model; on how to design, build, validate and verify cost-effectiveness models; on how to analyse and interpret these models; how to handle uncertainty in models; and how to use models to prioritise further research. The course is structured according to the steps of the PROACTIVE approach in modelling.
Teaching methods: In the form of problem-based learning. Group sessions (maximum of 10 students), lectures, training sessions, and weekly reports.
Study load: 72 contact hours (on Tuesdays) and 88 self-study hours in 8 weeks.
Examination: Individual examination with 3 or 4 ‘open’ questions, to be answered without books, a spreadsheet based cost-effectiveness model built by each student individually, and an extensive technical report (methods and results) of the individual cost-effectiveness model. The student will have to receive a sufficient grade in all three parts of the examination. All parts form a third of the final judgment.
Faculty HTA curriculum
Prof. Dr. Hans Severens, MSc, PhD. (coordinator)
Hans Severens is professor of Medical Technology Assessment at the dept. of Health Organisation Policy and Economics, Maastricht University and he is co-head of the department of Clinical Epidemiology and Medical Technology Assessment of the University Hospital Maastricht. As a researcher, he has 15 years experience in conducting economic evaluation alongside (clinical) trails as well as using modeling techniques for studying cost-effectiveness of medical interventions. Besides this, he worked on methodological subjects in this field, such as ratio uncertainty, validity of cost measurement and valuation of patients’ productivity loss.
Department of Health Organisation, Policy and Economics, Maastricht University
E-mail: H.Severens@BEOZ.unimaas.nl
Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Medical Technology Assessment, University Hospital Maastricht
Dr. Manuela Joore, MSc, PhD.
Manuela A. Joore holds a MSc. in Health Sciences/Epidemiology and a PhD. in Economics and has appointments at the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Medical Technology Assessment of the University Hospital Maastricht, and at the Department of Health Organisation, Policy and Economics of Maastricht University. She has 10 years of experience in conducting HTA research. As a senior researcher she is involved in a variety of economic evaluation projects, ranging from clinical procedures to pharmaceuticals to health care organizational change. Her methodological research interests are in the fields of decision analytical modelling and outcomes research.
Department of Health Organisation, Policy and Economics, Maastricht University
Email: M.Joore@BEOZ.unimaas.nl
Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Medical Technology Assessment, University Hospital Maastricht
Email: MJO@KEMTA.azm.nl
Dr. André Ament, MSc, PhD.
André Ament has an appointment as associate professor at the department of Health Organisation Policy and Economics at the University of Maastricht. He evaluated different technologies and interventions, among which CABG, Salmonella enteritidis, influenza, application of laparoscopy, scenario analysis et cetera. His thesis “Optimal use of diagnostics test” is a study into the application of economic modelling by uncertainty and was published in 1989. He has also performed several systematic reviews and has participated in developing a standardized minimum checklist for performing systematic reviews for cost-effectiveness analysis. Furthermore, he is performing an evaluation study of a computer assisted triage system in GP practice.
Department of Health Organisation, Policy and Economics, Maastricht University
E-mail: A.Ament@BEOZ.unimaas.nl
Dr. Silvia Evers, MSc, LL M, PhD.
Silvia Evers studied Health Sciences (Mental Health Sciences; Health Policy and Administration), Epidemiology, and Law. Since the early nineties, she worked as a (HTA) researcher at the Maastricht University (Epidemiology; Health Economics; Medical Sociology), at the University of Amsterdam (Pedagogics), and at University Hospital Maastricht (Neurosurgery). She wrote several international publications on economic evaluations on several subjects. Currently the author is working as a senior researcher at the department of Health Organisation Policy and Economics. A number of projects in which she was co-applicant were refunded mainly on international comparison (OECD Ageing Related Disease project, and the project Cross-national transferability of cost-effectiveness data in stroke) and on transferral of organizational care. She is among others a member of the Cochrane Health Economics Methods Group and the Mental Health Economics Europe. Besides her research activities, she is involved as an HTA-supervisor in several clinical trials and as a lecturer in HTA-courses.
Department of Health Organisation, Policy and Economics, Maastricht University
E-mail: S.Evers@BEOZ.unimaas.nl
Costs
EUR 450 per course
For further information and registration:
Check out our website http://www.hsrm.nl/ and follow the link to “short courses” or (e-)mail the program secretariat at the following address.
Contact information:
Dr. Christel van Gool
Maastricht University
Department of Epidemiology
Postal address: P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht
Visiting address: Peter Debeyeplein 1, room A2.43
Tel: +31 43 388 2372 / 2375
Fax: 0031 +43-3884128
e-mail: C.vanGool@epid.unimaas.nl
