PLENARY THEMES
PLENARY ONE
HTA As A Shaper Of Tomorrow's Health Systems
The world has changed, and with it, the challenges and responsibilities of our health systems. Climate change reshapes our environments; technologies evolve faster than policies; populations are ageing and shifting; pandemics test resilience; economies tighten; and public trust wavers. In the midst of all this, the question is not whether Health Technology Assessment, (HTA) should change, but why and how.
For decades, HTA has guided decisions, investments, and care by weighing the value of health technologies. But today’s challenges are not linear, and supply-driven technological pathways often deepen systemic fragility, making traditional thinking unsustainable. The moment calls for HTA to step into a new role: not just as a technical assessor of individual interventions, but as a shaper of the systems in which those interventions exist.
System shaping means HTA influencing not only single-technology appraisals but also prioritization, governance, and resource allocation across programs and lifecycles. It requires a proactive stance with horizon scanning, foresight, and attention to upstream determinants, so choices anticipate pressures before they become crises. The journey is from reactive to proactive, from “sick care” to genuine health care. It is about addressing upstream determinants of health, supporting innovations that ease pressure on systems over time, and building resilience that endures. While this vision is ambitious, early signals such as joint assessments across countries and horizon-scanning to prepare for global health threats demonstrate its plausibility.
Imagine HTA charting the course of health systems: embedding equity, trust, and sustainability into every decision; linking treatments with prevention; and connecting interventions with wider social, economic, and environmental contexts. This requires drawing on diverse sources of knowledge, from historical data to the lived experiences of patients, citizens, and communities. By adopting a responsible innovation lens, HTA can help redirect technological progress toward sustainability, equity, workforce stability, and accountable trade-offs.
In this plenary, voices from across the health ecosystem will come together: policymakers and payers, the health workforce, innovators and academics, and patients and citizens. Each brings a piece of the story, the lived realities, the scientific evidence, the bold ideas. Together they can redefine what “value” means in practice. HTA, in this telling, is not the end of the story, but the bridge between evidence and the public good, offering forward-looking guidance to shape more equitable, sustainable, and resilient systems.
True system shaping also requires collaboration across sectors and borders, recognizing that investments in health depend on contributions from other domains. System shaping must also be global. This plenary commits to perspectives from both, HTA established and low- and middle-income country contexts, surfacing lessons from the Global South as well as for it. Equity, trust, and sustainability will be considered through real dilemmas decision-makers face, such as balancing speed of access with evidentiary certainty, or immediate budget impact with long-term environmental footprint.
Plenary 1 sets out the imperatives and questions that make this transformation essential. Plenary 2 will illustrate what is being done in practice to address them, while Plenary 3 will explore how these results can be achieved and scaled through methods, tools, and institutional frameworks.
PLENARY TWO
From Evidence To Impact: HTA Driving Change In Systems
Across the globe, health systems are searching for ways to transform evidence into measurable, real-world results. In this effort, HTA is emerging not only as a tool for technology evaluation but as a driver of system-wide transformation. The focus is no longer just on generating assessments, but on showing what changes because those assessments exist: shifts in guidelines, re-prioritization toward prevention, reduced time-to-decision, expanded access for underserved groups, reallocation of budgets, or strengthened sustainability.
While HTA's potential is undisputed, it is worth reflecting on the impact it is having in the real world and the lessons that can be drawn. This session will examine concrete cases that demonstrate how HTA is enabling systems to act differently, yielding results that matter for equity, trust, and long-term resilience. Some examples will come from countries with well-established HTA systems, while others will highlight early but impactful steps in settings where capacity is still developing. In each case, the focus will remain on outcomes: what shifted, who benefited, and how the system has changed as a result.
Evidence of impact will be drawn from a range of practices, from horizon scanning and technology lifecycle approaches, to benefit package definition, service redesign and system restructure. Joint efforts are increasingly central, with regional collaborations and partnerships with global organizations playing an important role in enabling impact. Collaborative efforts, from regional partnerships to shared assessment models, demonstrate that impact is not only the result of sweeping reforms. It can also emerge through practical, replicable steps that agencies adopt in their own settings, showing that collective action can translate evidence into change on the ground.
Building trust will also feature, addressed not only through transparent communication of results but by ensuring active stakeholder engagement in decision-making. By bringing together policymakers, practitioners, patients, and the public, HTA processes are evolving into more inclusive forums for shaping decisions. This dimension of engagement highlights that legitimacy is as important as evidence in driving real change.
Capacity building and regional collaboration experiences will also feature in this session, particularly from low- and middle-income settings where such efforts have enabled jurisdictions to act on evidence in new ways. These will be treated as examples of impact in practice: how networks, adaptation models, and partnership pathways have already shifted what systems can do. The session remains grounded in results, showcasing how different contexts have translated evidence into change.
Throughout, participants will hear not abstract promises but evidence of tangible shifts already underway. Each case will highlight not only ambition but also replicability, offering insights that agencies can adapt and apply within their own settings. The goal is to show that HTA is not only about envisioning future systems but about delivering change today.
Plenary 2 therefore aims to equip participants with lessons that are grounded in reality and offer hints of transferability across contexts. The session highlights HTA’s role as a catalyst for change. It leaves delegates with a clear sense of what is possible now, while pointing naturally toward the conversations that will follow on how such results can be deepened and sustained.
PLENARY THREE
The How Of HTA: Methods, Tools, And Capacity For System Shaping
Producing rigorous HTA is only the beginning — its greatest impact comes when evidence is translated into practice. Across health systems worldwide, there is growing opportunity to ensure that HTA informs decisions consistently and effectively, unlocking its full potential to strengthen care and outcomes. This plenary will highlight the operational ‘how’: the methods, tools, institutional frameworks, and capacity-building strategies that help transform HTA from reports and recommendations into meaningful, sustained changes in the real world.
Building on Plenary 1’s high-level vision (“why”) and Plenary 2’s real-world examples (“what”), Plenary 3 delivers the “how-to” — a practical, forward-looking discussion on turning HTA outputs into enduring practice. The session will emphasize methodological innovation, technical feasibility, and the conditions required to support HTA within decision-making processes across diverse contexts.
Sustainability will be addressed in a broad and interconnected way, covering both environmental considerations and the resilience of HTA systems. On the environmental side, the session will look at “green HTA” approaches that incorporate ecological impact into assessment frameworks, ensuring that decisions are not only framed around the traditional assessment domains but incorporate new dimensions such as the long-term environmental footprint of health technologies. At the same time, sustainability will refer to the ability of HTA systems to remain relevant and effective over time, supported by strong governance, stable financing, collaborative networks, and increased stakeholder awareness. This dual perspective recognizes that HTA must guide responsible choices today while maintaining the capacity, credibility, and adaptability needed to serve health systems into the future.
A core theme will be capacity building — recognizing that methods and tools are only as impactful as the people and institutions applying them. The plenary will highlight strategies for strengthening skills, transferring knowledge, and building institutional readiness, with relevance for both established agencies and those with less mature HTA systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In these contexts, where the will to advance HTA often outpaces local expertise, the focus will be on feasible, context-sensitive approaches rather than ‘copy-paste’ models from high-income settings. The session will explore best practices for tailoring HTA to reflect local needs, priorities, and capacities, ensuring that implementation is both realistic and impactful. Capacity building will be addressed broadly: not just for HTA producers, but also for implementing agencies, policymakers, and non-HTA bodies and stakeholders whose understanding of HTA is critical to enable meaningful contributions and ensure its effective use.
The discussion will directly address political realities. In many LMICs, changes in leadership and national priorities can disrupt HTA processes; in high-income countries, competing budget priorities can sideline recommendations. Examples will show how governance structures, financing strategies, and cross-sector collaboration can safeguard implementation and maintain relevance over time. Approaches to designing HTA methodologies that are both technically robust and feasible for routine use will be explored, with attention to ensuring that methods are fit-for-purpose across different technologies. While many existing processes remain heavily pharma-focused, the session will also consider how approaches must adapt for medical devices, diagnostics, and other technologies where the value proposition to payers, providers, and patients can differ significantly. These discussions will be complemented by reflections on the institutional arrangements and financing models that best support sustainable integration.
By the close of the session, delegates will leave with actionable insights — concrete strategies, proven tools, and implementation lessons they can adapt to their own contexts. Plenary 3 will ensure the conference ends with a practical roadmap for making HTA an enduring driver of policy, practice, and better health outcomes.
HTAi 2026 ANNUAL MEETING
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