OBJECTIVES: This landscape analysis aimed to summarize the role of health equity in health technology assessment (HTA) process (topic nomination, topic prioritization, assessment, appraisal, and decision-making) in Asia.
METHODS: A comprehensive literature review followed by in-depth interviews with key informants was conducted. Content analysis was performed to summarize the role of health equity in HTA in thirteen health systems in Asia, including Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
RESULTS: Health equity was reported to be considered in most health systems' HTA process, except for Cambodia and Myanmar, which do not have an established HTA process. Interviews revealed that health equity has been more frequently considered to address the unmet medical needs of specific diseases (e.g., high disease burden or severity, rare diseases, cancer, and diseases affecting children and elderly) in Brunei Darussalam, China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam or inequities in the socially disadvantaged groups (e.g., socioeconomic status and geographical location) in Indonesia and the Philippines. Equity-informative economic evaluation was still in the early stages, with only three health systems reporting their use.
CONCLUSIONS: Health equity is considered in the HTA process in most Asian health systems. However, quantitative evaluation of health equity impact is still in its infancy as few health systems have just begun to perform equity-informative economic evaluations.
* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.