The 4th NUS Initiative to Improve Health in Asia (NIHA) Forum was held on 1st and 2nd July 2013 at Traders Hotel, Singapore. Jointly organised by the National University of Singapore (NUS) Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health and NUS Global Asia Institute (GAI), the 2-day event saw approximately 90 healthcare leaders and decision-makers, healthcare policy academics and industry experts from around the region convene to tackle this year’s theme of “Economics, Technology Assessment and Health Policymaking”.
The Forum was kicked off by NUS President, Prof Tan Chorh Chuan, who delivered the welcome remarks, followed by the NIHA Forum opening speech, which was delivered by the Guest of Honour, Senior Minister of State for Health and Manpower, Dr Amy Khor.
The keynote speaker for the day was Prof David Haslam, Chairman, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), United Kingdom, who spoke on “The generation of evidence and healthcare decision making – current challenges”.
Dr Chris Henshall, Chair, Health Technology Assessment International Policy Forum and Health Technology International, Canada, then led the presentations and panel discussion on “Health Technology Assessment and Healthcare Delivery in Asia”, which saw Prof Zhao Kun, Dr Pritaporn Kingkaew and Dr Madeleine De Rosas-Valera share on their experiences in China, Thailand and the Philippines respectively.
Assoc Prof Lim Yee Wei from the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health (SSHSPH) facilitated the second topic of discussion for the day, “The Role of Stakeholders in Health Technology Assessment”, during which Prof Maarten Izjerman from the Netherlands and Prof Lloyd Sansom from Australia gave their take on engaging stakeholders.
Dr Joanne Yoong from SSHSPH led the third and final round of presentations on “Engaging the Private Sector in Health Technology Assessment” which featured Dr Kalipso Chalkidou from the United Kingdom and Dr Lotte Steuten from the Netherlands, who shared their perspectives on the given topic.
Day 1 of the Forum was brought to a close by a reception and buffet dinner held at the Temasek Rooms.
The second day of the Forum saw President of the Institute of Medicine, USA, Prof Harvey Fineberg, give the keynote lecture on “Evidence and medical decision-making: lessons from the US and implications for Asian countries” followed by Dr Alex Cook from SSHSPH, who gave a presentation on how Singapore has used evidence synthesis and modelling to help develop policies.
The speakers and participants then assembled into groups, facilitated by the School faculty, to discuss how to identify opportunities and challenges of using and collecting data for policy development. After a lively discussion, both groups then shared the results of their findings with the rest of the room.
After the presentations, the NIHA Forum was then concluded by Prof Chia Kee Seng, Dean of SSHSPH, who gave the closing remarks.