School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK; International Federation of Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE), Brussels, Belgium.
Biomedical Technology Unit, University of Patras, Patras, Greece; International Federation of Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE), Brussels, Belgium.
Med Eng Phys. 2019 Oct;72:19-26. doi: 10.1016/j.medengphy.2019.08.008.
The diffusion of medical devices is expanding at an astonishing rate. The increasing number of novel patents per year suggests this growth will continue. In contrast to drugs, medical devices are intrinsically dependent on the environment in which they are used and how they are maintained. This created an unprecedented global need for well-trained biomedical engineers who can help healthcare systems to assess them. The International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE) is the global scientific society of biomedical engineers in official relations with the United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO) and has been very active in promoting the role of the biomedical engineer in Health Technology Assessment (HTA). The IFMBE Health Technology Assessment Division (HTAD) is the IFMBE operative branch in this field, promoting studies, projects and activities to foster the growth of this specific and very important science sector, including summer schools, training material, an HTA eLearning platform, HTA guidelines, awards and more. This article describes the vision, the mission and the strategy of the HTAD, with a focus on the results achieved and the impact this is having on global policymaking.
医疗器械的普及正在以惊人的速度增长。每年新增的专利数量表明，这种增长将持续下去。与药物不同，医疗器械本质上依赖于其使用的环境以及其维护方式。这就产生了对受过良好培训的生物医学工程师的前所未有的全球需求，他们可以帮助医疗保健系统对其进行评估。国际医学和生物工程联合会（IFMBE）是与联合国世界卫生组织（WHO）有正式关系的全球生物医学工程师科学学会，一直非常积极地倡导生物医学工程师在健康技术评估（HTA）中的作用。IFMBE 健康技术评估司（HTAD）是该领域 IFMBE 的执行部门，通过促进研究、项目和活动来推动这一特定且非常重要的科学领域的发展，包括暑期学校、培训材料、HTA 电子学习平台、HTA 指南、奖项等。本文描述了 HTAD 的愿景、使命和战略，重点介绍了所取得的成果以及这对全球政策制定的影响。
