Course syllabus

Course description

EEN 236 - Health Technology Assessment

 

Academic year 2025/2026

Examiner: Jahangir Khan (khanja@chalmers.se)

Lecturers: Pia Johansson, Akbar Kabir, Jahangir Khan, Constanze Wartenberg

 

Course purpose

 

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of the course the student will be able to:

 

Knowledge and understanding

• To describe and critically discuss Health Technology Assessment methods and processes

- for understanding how the clinical effectiveness and patient outcomes of medical devices are being assessed

- for understand the effects of medical devices from social, organizational and ethical viewpoints

- for understanding the role of economic evaluations of medical devices

• To apply and present Health Technology Assessment principles to cases of medical devices, in writing and orally
• To understand microeconomic theories and its applications in health and healthcare and in HTA context
• To describe concepts and designs of economic evaluation of health care interventions
• To perform basic calculations of key components in economic evaluation of health care interventions and equity measurements

 

Skills and abilities

• Understanding about concept of HTA and its various aspects
• Basic Microeconomic theories
• Cost-effectiveness and data analysis
• Understanding how HTA outcomes can be used in budget allocation and Health Policy
• Communicating HTA knowledge with stakeholders

 

Judgement and approach

• Discussing about clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness analysis
• Balancing HTA from social, organizational, environmental and ethical perspective
• Managing uncertainty in evidence of cost-effectiveness of health technologies

 

Course-specific prerequisites

Same as admission to the program

 

Reading list

• Health technology assessment of medical devices - WHO Medical device technical series, ISBN 978 92 4 150136 1. World Health Organization, 2011. Geneva.
• Morris, S., Devlin N., Parkin. D., Spencer, A. Economic Analysis in Health Care, 2^ndEdition. 2012. London.
• Wagstaff A. The demand for health: theory and applications Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 1986, 40, 1-11.
• Additional material, e.g., scientific articles, will be supplied via the Student Portal

 

Course activities

• Online and classroom lectures
• Group discussion and assignments
• Presentation
• Laboratory

 

Summary of changes since the previous year

• Microeconomics has been largely taken away.
• Health Technology Assessment has been incorporated with focus on social, organizational, environmental and ethical aspects
• Lab sessions have been upgraded

 

Examination form

• Module 1: Oral exam (seminar) and group assignment (written submission), 3 credits,
• Module 2: Laboratory (completion of economic evaluation exercises), 2 credits
• Module 3: Written Examination, 2.5 credit

 

Grade limits

In module 1: For ‘pass’ grade, the students must present orally and in writing the Health Technology Assessment assignment and submit the assignments on microeconomic theories, models and applications. Only pass grade is given.

 

In module 2: For ‘pass’ grade, the students must complete the individual exercises through laboratory assignments. Only pass grade is given.

 

In module 3: the students must obtain 50% of the total marks for ‘pass’ grade, 70% for ‘pass with credit’ grade and 85% for ‘pass with distinction’.

 

The grade in the entire course will be determined by the grade in module 3, while the students must get ‘pass’ grade in module 1 and module 2.

 

Course components

The course will include three specific areas. Firstly, a broad understand about Health Technology Assessment with focus on clinical outcome/effectiveness as well as social, organizational, environmental and ethical aspects. Secondly, basic of microeconomic theories and its applications in health and healthcare analysis. Thirdly, effectiveness and in particular cost-effectiveness analyses as an integral part of Health Technology Assessments of healthcare interventions/medical devices.

 

In the first area, clinical effectiveness and patient outcomes, social, organization and ethical dimensions of medical technologies will be discussed in relation to its assessment for application in the health sector and further studied in a group work applied to case examples of medical devices.  In the second area, demand, supply, equilibrium in market and economic efficiency in general as well as in health sector will be covered. In the third area, methods for the assessment of healthcare intervention effectiveness in terms of health outcomes and patient benefits as well as key components of health economic evaluations are covered, including the reporting of cost-effectiveness results within Health Technology Assessment reports. Further, applications of economic evaluations of medical devices s and equity in health and healthcare utilization will be covered during lectures and seminars in the course.    

 

Use of AI tools

Students are allowed to use AI tools, such as Chat-GPT or Copilot, but a statement of such usages to be notified.

 

Date and time of examination

Check the module/schedule