CCOHTA Awards $1.6 Million In HTA Capacity Building Grants
March 30, 2004
OTTAWA—The Canadian Coordinating Office for Health Technology Assessment has awarded $1.6 million in grants to support innovative projects that will build the capacity to produce and use health technology assessments across Canada, CCOHTA President Dr. Jill Sanders announced today. “Decision makers want to make health technology purchase and use decisions on the basis of systematic assessments, but the capacity in Canada to produce and use assessment information is limited,” said Sanders. “These grants will build on existing capacity and increase the resources available for this critical activity.”
CCOHTA’s HTA capacity building grants program, introduced this year, provides support to educational institutions, non-profit health care and health research organizations with an established HTA capacity through four funding streams:
- Improvements to or refinements of HTA methodologies
- Knowledge transfer processes, methods and tools
- Educational and training initiatives
- Graduate student support
In total, 21 projects were selected for funding, ranging from explorations of how to package HTA information to improve decision-making to developing approaches for public involvement in priority-setting for HTA to methodology for using cost-effectiveness results from other countries for Canadian health care decision-making. The proposals that were approved built on existing HTA capacity in Canada, met the objectives of the grants program and, in the view of internal and external evaluators, would best help CCOHTA deliver on its mandate.
“The diversity and quality of the selected projects will strengthen HTA capacity across the country,” said Sanders. “Our expectation is that the organizations funded this year will be in a position to provide mentorship and guidance to other organizations in future years as new capacity is built through this program.”
Summaries of funded projects are available on CCOHTA’s web site at www.ccohta.ca. All projects must be completed by March 31, 2005.
Details of the 2005 HTA capacity building grants program will be posted on CCOHTA’s web site when available.
CCOHTA is an independent not-for-profit organization that provides unbiased, reliable information about health technologies to Canadian health care decision-makers. CCOHTA delivers a Health Technology Assessment program, the Common Drug Review and the Canadian Optimal Medication Prescribing and Utilization Service (COMPUS). CCOHTA is funded by the Canadian federal, provincial and territorial governments..
For further information contact Kirk Fergusson: 613 226-2553 ext. 276