[ role of health technology assessment in evidence- based decision making and health policy: a review study]

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to show the major challenges and opportunities related to Health Technology Assessment [HTA] that most countries have faced with when launching and developing an HTA system for making appropriate decisions in policy making

Review of studies: This was a review study in the field of HTA and health policy. All literature potentially relevant to this issue had been studied via library and the Internet search of data bases related to HTA to select and present materials extracted. The search was focused on English papers published in 1980-2014.The impact of HTA depends in large part on the quality and transparency of the assessment and decision-making processes, as well as institutional, organizational, political and cultural dynamics broader than the scopes of national health care systems. As many countries increasingly gear their health systems towards policies emphasizing measurement, accountability, transparency and evidence-based practices, the challenges of HTA should be addressed in order to achieve concurrent health care system goals, and support those services offering large value of money and impact on health care outcomes

Conclusion: The role of HTA offering extensive opportunities to support governments and other stakeholders in decision-making has grown substantially. Countries should, therefore, seek to capitalize on the strengths of established HTA systems, while pioneering solutions to address major challenges and strengthening the HTA enterprise

[Determining the rate of catastrophic health expenditure and its influential factors on families in Yazd province]

Introduction: The high rate of catastrophic health care expenditure is a challenging problem societies face today. Identifying the influential factors on the expenditure is an important measure which should be taken to control them. In this study, the catastrophic health expenditure and its influential factors were examined

Methods: Within the framework of Health Center Province, 400 households were selected in winter 2011. The WHO's health questionnaire was completed for them by the researchers. The incidence of catastrophic health expenditure was evaluated in accordance with the World Health Organization definition and influential factors on the expenditures were investigated by using Stata software 11

Results: It was found that 8.3 Present of the families of Yazd province were exposed to catastrophic health expenditure. The use of inpatient services was shown to have the largest amount in paid-out-of-pocket expenditure and their relationship to incidence of catastrophic health expenditure was found to be significant. It was, moreover, found that the relationships between family sizes, persons below 5 years old in the families, and the use of medical services and diagnosis with catastrophic health expenditure were significant

Conclusion: The variables of medicine, diagnosis, inpatient services and persons below 5 years old in household and family size should be seriously taken into account by policy makers to control Catastrophic Health Expenditure