Washington DC, July 2024 - Since 2022, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), through its Department of Innovation, Access to Medicines and Health Technologies (IMT) and the Health Technology Assessment Network of the Americas (RedETSA) collaborates technically with the Spanish Network of Health Technology Assessment Agencies and Benefits of the National Health System (REDETS) coordinated by the General Directorate of Common Portfolio of Services and Pharmacy under the Ministry of Health of Spain, with the aim of strengthening the development of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) in support of evidence-based decision making to promote equitable, efficient and high quality health systems.
This collaboration has allowed the mutual knowledge of the networks after participating in their respective annual meetings in 2022; the organization of joint activities, such as the realization in May 2024 of a Webinar on Health Technology Assessment applied to Digital Health Technologies; and the exchange of knowledge among peers, among others, by recently finalizing the project to enter the reports of the Spanish Network in the first Regional Database of Health Technology Assessment Reports of the Americas (BRISA, www.redetsa.org/brisa), which already has more than 3400 HTA reports. In addition, the networks are currently preparing an operational agreement to formally establish the technical cooperation they are developing, backed by the Framework Agreement established by PAHO and the Ministry of Health of Spain in 1984.
Learn more about Brisa
The Regional Database of Health Technology Assessment Reports of the Americas (BRISA, www.redetsa.org/brisa)provides free access to bibliographic information on Health Technology Assessments prepared and published by member institutions of the Health Technology Assessment Network of the Americas (RedETSA) and strategic partners. BRISA is the first open regional virtual library that centralizes Health Technology Assessment reports that would otherwise be dispersed or inaccessible, and makes them available to health authorities and workers, decision makers, researchers and citizens in general. BRISA makes it possible to learn about the experience of other countries and avoid duplication of efforts, promotes the incorporation of cost-effective health technologies, contributes to their appropriate use and prevents the use of health inputs that do not contribute to people's wellbeing.
This initiative, a pioneer in the Americas, was developed in collaboration with the Latin American and Caribbean Center for Health Sciences Information (BIREME) through the Virtual Health Library (BVS - Biblioteca Virtual de Salud). The BVS hosts the database, which makes it possible to cross-reference the searched topic with other available databases, such as LILACS and Medline.
With the BRISA database, PAHO and RedETSA seek to promote the use of HTA to improve the decision-making process for the incorporation of technologies in health systems, improving access and equity in health.
