Article type
Abstract
Background: Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is an emerging field in health departments of states from Brazil that requires training of human resources to support decision-making processes. Brazil is a large country with economic disparities and sociocultural inequalities. So, there is a need for educational strategies to improve professional abilities and to disseminate evidence-based practices.
Objective: To describe the quality and the reporting of the final work developed by professionals from the five regions of the country participating in the HTA Training Program.
Methods: Participants from 27 State Health Departments, without experience in evidence synthesis methods, were involved in the proposed training program on HTA, which consisted of online courses (140 hours) with modules in The quality of these submitted documents was evaluated through the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist for Systematic Reviews and Research Syntheses by an external researcher not involved with the course. The data were presented qualitatively.
Results: 24 of 27 Health State Departments concluded the activity and had their documents analyzed. Its important to note that this was the first evidence synthesis made for several participants. Of the 24 documents produced, 21 (87,5%) met item 1 of the checklist when presenting a review question clearly and explicitly stated. 17 (70,83%) met item 10 of the checklist when presenting reported data that supports practices recommendations and policies. 13 (54,16%) met items 2 and 4 of the checklist when appropriately using eligibility criteria and sources to search for studies in the review, respectively. The item with the worst evaluation of the checklist was item 9, in which 1 state accessed the publication bias of the included studies (4,17%).
Conclusions: This demonstrates that the format used by the program can be an effective strategy for professional training in this area, but more training and improvement actions on ATS are still needed in Brazilian state health departments.
Objective: To describe the quality and the reporting of the final work developed by professionals from the five regions of the country participating in the HTA Training Program.
Methods: Participants from 27 State Health Departments, without experience in evidence synthesis methods, were involved in the proposed training program on HTA, which consisted of online courses (140 hours) with modules in The quality of these submitted documents was evaluated through the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist for Systematic Reviews and Research Syntheses by an external researcher not involved with the course. The data were presented qualitatively.
Results: 24 of 27 Health State Departments concluded the activity and had their documents analyzed. Its important to note that this was the first evidence synthesis made for several participants. Of the 24 documents produced, 21 (87,5%) met item 1 of the checklist when presenting a review question clearly and explicitly stated. 17 (70,83%) met item 10 of the checklist when presenting reported data that supports practices recommendations and policies. 13 (54,16%) met items 2 and 4 of the checklist when appropriately using eligibility criteria and sources to search for studies in the review, respectively. The item with the worst evaluation of the checklist was item 9, in which 1 state accessed the publication bias of the included studies (4,17%).
Conclusions: This demonstrates that the format used by the program can be an effective strategy for professional training in this area, but more training and improvement actions on ATS are still needed in Brazilian state health departments.