President

Laura Sampietro-Colom, M.D., M.Sc.PH, PhD

Laura is a medical doctor (university of Barcelona) and earned her doctorate in medicine and surgery from the Autonomous University of  Barcelona; she is an specialist in Public Health, and Master in Science of Public Health (Emory University, Atlanta, USA).

Laura has over 20 years of experience in evaluative research, specifically in Health Technology Assessment (HTA). She was one of the founders of the Catalan Agency for Health Technology Assessment, being now a research associate. She is a founding board member of the International Society for Health Technology Assessment (HTAi) and has been a Director of HTAi, including three years as the Secretary of the Executive Committee and two years as Vice-President. Laura was partly responsible for the development of the first international project undertaken by the International Network of Agencies for Health Terchnology Assesment (INAHTA), and has collaborated actively in several other HTA European Projects, leading some areas of action. She has been temporary advisor of United Nations Agencies (WHO, PAHO, World Bank). She serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of technology Assessment in Health Care. She has been the Director of Projects, Evaluation and Information Systems at the Catalan Institute of Health, the main provider of public health care services in Catalonia; and the Head of the Strategic Planning Unit for health care organisation (Planning and Evaluation Directorate) of the Catalan Ministry of Health. Overall, Laura's work has focused on the evaluation of health care technologies, the identification, management and transference of information to improve the decision-making process, and on evidence-based planning healthcare services.   

Currently, Dr Sampietro-Colom is the Deputy Director for Innovation at the “Hospital Clinic” in Barcelona, a leading Teaching Hospital in Spain.

Vice President

Clifford Goodman, PhD, is a Vice President at The Lewin Group, a health care policy and human services consulting firm located near Washington, DC.  He has 30 years of experience in health care evaluation, including HTA, evidence-based health care, comparative effectiveness research, health economics, and studies pertaining to health care innovation, regulation, and payment.  He directs studies and projects for an international range of government agencies; pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies; health care provider institutions; and professional, industry, and patient advocacy groups.  His recent work has involved studies in oncology, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, end-stage renal disease, pandemic influenza, follow-on biologics, wound care, health information technology, pharmacogenomics, diagnostic testing, and organ transplantation.  He directed a Lewin team that provided technical support for the US Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (including its Report to the President and The Congress, 2009).  For the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), he directed the Evidence-based Practice Centers Coordinating Center at The Lewin Group (2002-08).  Dr. Goodman is chair (through May 2011) of the Medicare Evidence Development & Coverage Advisory Committee (MEDCAC) for the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).  He has testified to Congress on issues pertaining to Medicare coverage of health care technology.  Earlier in his career, as a National Research Council Fellow and later as director of the Council on Health Care Technology, he managed and staffed a series of HTA projects at the Institute of Medicine, including the landmark study, Assessing Medical Technologies.  Subsequently, he was a visiting researcher in Stockholm at the Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care (SBU).  He is a founding board member of HTAi and is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.  He serves on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care and the American Journal of Managed Care.  He did his undergraduate work at Cornell University, received a master's degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and earned his doctorate from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. 

Board Secretary

Professor Guy Maddern is the RP Jepson Professor of Surgery at the University of Adelaide and Director of Surgery at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital. He was trained at the University of Adelaide and became a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons in 1989. His clinical interests include the physiological impact of laparoscopic surgery, and more recently the development of techniques to manage metastatic hepatic disease. He has over 200 publications in scientific journals and has contributed to over a dozen surgical publications.

At the commencement of 1996 Professor Maddern was appointed Director of the Clinical Development Research Centre, now the Basil Hetzel Institute, at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital charged with the responsibility of defining the future direction and development of research within The Queen Elizabeth Hospital campus.

In November 1997 he was appointed Surgical Director of the Australian Safety and Efficacy Register of New Interventional Procedures - Surgical (ASERNIP- S). This organization, funded by the Federal Government through the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, is a programme designed to perform rigorous assessments on the safety and efficacy of new procedures and technologies available in surgical practice, and feedback this information to surgeons and the community.

Treasurer

Americo Cicchetti is Professor of Management at the Catholic University, Faculty of Economics, Rome. He is chief of Research of the Health Technology Assessment Unit (hospital based HTA Unit), “A. Gemelli” University Hospital (Rome). He is Scientific Director of the Master Program in Health Care Management at Catholic University and member of the Scientific Committee of the International Master Program in Health Technology Assessment and Management (Ulysses Program).

Member of the Board of Directors of the Italian National Institutes of Health.

He served as Director of the Health Technology Assessment International (2005-2008) and he is currently Vice President and founder of the Italian Society of Health Technology Assessment.

He chairs a strategic research program of the Ministry of Health, “Development of the health technology assessment framework for diagnostic technologies in the Italian NHS” (2007 - 2009).  He was Member of the Steering Committee of the EUNetHTA Project, European Network of Health Technology Assessment (2006-2008) and he is now leading an Italian associated partner of the EUNEHTA Collaboration (2009-).

Americo Cicchetti is member of the Editorial Board of the “International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care” (2008- and of the "Italian Journal of Public Health" (indexed journal on the National Library of Medicine).

In his professional activity he is Official Financial Auditor.

Past - President

Reiner Banken was born in Germany, started his medical studies in West Berlin and obtained his medical degree from Université de Montréal in Canada. At this university he also earned a master's degree in Community Health.

Consultant Researcher for AETMIS since 1998, he holds the position of Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Development and Partnerships since July 2005. He worked as an emergency physician for five years and as a specialist in public health for 12 years, including serving as Public Health Director for Québec's Laurentian region.

Dr. Banken also served as a consultant to international organizations such as the European Centre for Health Policy and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), a division of the World Health Organization (WHO).

Director

Dr. Tammy Clifford is the Vice President of the HTA Directorate at the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH). The HTA Directorate is responsible for the Health Technology Assessment Program, the Health Technology Inquiry Service (rapid reviews), the Canadian Emerging Technologies Assessment Program and the Economic Guidelines at CADTH. Dr. Clifford also holds faculty appointments in Paediatrics and in Epidemiology and Community Medicine at the University of Ottawa; there, she teaches in the problem-based learning modules for the undergraduate medical education curriculum and also serves as a thesis examiner for the Masters in Epidemiology program. She received her PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Western Ontario and both her BSc and MSc(A) from McGill University in Montreal.

Tammy's particular fields of interest relate to the methodological underpinnings of systematic reviews/meta-analyses, as well as the editorial peer review process. She remains involved in pediatric research through collaborations with colleagues at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO); she also serves as a scientific community member on CHEO’s Research Ethics Board. Tammy is involved with a number of organizations including INAHTA, ISPOR,  EuroScan and, of course, HTAi.  She serves as Chair of the Scientific and Professional Programmes Committee for HTAi and as an editorial board member for HTAi’s journal, the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care.

Director

Flávia Tavares Silva Elias is graduated in Nutrition at Fluminense Federal University (Rio de Janeiro – Brazil) and has Professional Master Degree in Public Health at Bahia Federal University. Since 2005, she is the General Coordinator of Health Technology Assessment area in the Ministry of Health. She has experience in the area of Planning and Management, with emphasis in Science and Technology, acting mainly on financing, research, assessment and management of health technologies. She is also part of the INAHTA Working Group on Impact of HTA.

Director

Iñaki Gutiérrez-Ibarluzea BSc, MSc, PhD is the Knowledge Manager and Coordinator of the early awareness and alert system of Osteba, the Basque Office for HTA. He is member of the HTAi ISG on information resources, the HTAi ISG group on Membership and dissemination and chairs the HTAi-ISG on disinvestment of technologies of low-added value.

He has been collaborating in different European Union funded projects such as: InnoHTA, EunetHTA, PHGEN I and II and Health ClusterNet playing different roles. He is also coordinating different projects at the Spanish level such as: GENTecS or Information resources group.

He is currently the chairman of EuroScan, the International Network for the identification and assessment of new and emerging health technologies. He is also professor at the Nursing School of the Basque Health Service Osakidetza and collaborates with the University of the Basque Country and the University Oberta of Catalonia in different academic activities.

He was actively involved in the e-text on HTA promoted by the ISG on information resources and in the development of the HTAi vortal on information resources. At the Spanish level he coordinates the Spanish Group of Agencies for the Identification and assessment of new and emerging technologies and is member of the groups for the assessment of obsolete technologies and the development of post-introduction systems for the assessment of health technologies leaded by the Galician Agency (Avalia-T).

He has experience in the organization of events and meetings; in fact he has been part of the organizing committee of HTAi Barcelona 2007 and AEETS 2000, in the scientific reviewing committees of HTAi 2007 Barcelona, 2008 Montreal, AEETS 2006 and 2008 and SESPAS 2009. He has also take part has an evaluator in different call for funds at the Spanish and European Union level (FP7). He has also been member of the International Scientific committee of the Health Innovation Awards of the NHS North West 2009 (UK). He has been collaborating with the Spanish Ministry of Industry and the Spanish Observatory of Technological Prospective Studies and is member and co-coordinator of the Spanish National TaskForce on Genomics.

Director

Professor Janet Hiller is the Professor of Public Health and Deputy Head of the School of Population Health and Clinical Practice at The University of Adelaide.  She completed her undergraduate education in Social Work at the University of Melbourne and worked in community health before moving overseas to further her education and professional experiences.  After completing an MPH at the Hebrew University, she moved to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA where she undertook a PhD in Epidemiology.

Following her appointment at The University of Adelaide, she worked for many years in perinatal epidemiology, as a member of a multidisciplinary team investigating interventions associated with the prevention and consequences of preterm birth, and with antenatal screening.  She has been a member of two Cochrane Review Groups for many years. In 2006, she was appointed Honorary Professor at the Shandong Academy of Occupational Health and Medicine in Jinan, China.

In 2001, she established Adelaide Health Technology and Assessment (AHTA),  AHTA completes assessments of the safety, effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and social and ethical impact of technologies including pharmaceuticals, vaccines, devices, tests (diagnostics and screening), public health programs, and procedures for a number of government and non-government organisations.  AHTA is, in addition, building research around HTA activity, particularly around the incorporation of consumer perspectives (pandemic influenza, screening for diabetic retinopathy and models of care), ethics and HTA, assessment of diagnostic (particularly triage) tests, disinvestment of established and ineffective/unsafe technologies, and the development of early warning systems for new and emerging public health technologies.  AHTA has established active research collaborations in Shandong and Shanghai, China, around HTA and public health, and is an active member of INAHTA, Euroscan and the ISPOR HTA council.

Janet is a teacher of postgraduate and undergraduate students, encouraging critical thinking about HTA principles.  She is a supervisor of  postgraduate students working on HTA from Australia, China and Pakistan – the latter funded by Australian aid agencies. She works closely with policy makers in HTA through the work of AHTA and with her role as chair of the South Australian policy making body on tobacco control.

Director

Nationality : Brazilian and French
Medical Studies : University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
Specialty : Rheumatology
Master in Public Health : University of Paris XI, France

Former professional experience :

    * clinical practice (emergency, rheumatology, general practice in different hospitals in Sao Paulo, Brasil; and rheumatology in Paris, France),
    * epidemiological research at INSERM, Paris, France
    * successively project leader and deputy head of department for the assessment of medical and surgical procedures at Agence National d’Accréditation et d’Evaluation en Santé – ANAES, France

Experience in international HTA activities :

    * project leader of work package 7 – Monitoring development for emerging/new technologies for the European Network for Health Technology Assessment –  the Eunethta project
    * member of Euroscan network, is developing horizon scanning activity in HAS

Current position : head of department for the assessment of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures at French National Authority for Health - Haute Autorité de santé (HAS)

Director

Steven D. Pearson, MD, MSc, FRCP is the Founder and President of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.  Dr. Pearson also serves as Visiting Scientist in the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health.  He attended UCSF School of Medicine and completed his residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.  An internist, health services researcher, and ethicist, he was awarded an Atlantic Fellowship from the British government in 2004 to pursue policy studies at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in London, England.  He returned to the US to serve from 2005-2006 as Special Advisor, Technology and Coverage Policy, within the Coverage and Analysis Group at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  He also served as Vice Chair of the Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee (MEDCAC) from 2007-2009, and as Senior Fellow at America’s Health Insurance Plans from 2006-2008.  His published work includes the book No Margin, No Mission: Health Care Organizations and the Quest for Ethical Excellence.

Director

Pwee Keng Ho has been working in public health and health administration in the Ministry of Health, Singapore, since 1995.

In 2002, he was a visiting scholar at the then-Canadian Coordinating Office for Health Technology Assessment (CCOHTA). Since 2002, Dr Pwee has been working in the fields of HTA and clinical practice guidelines development in the Ministry of Health.

He is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care (IJTAHC) and an associate editor of the Singapore Medical Journal (SMJ).

Observer - HTAi Policy Forum Chair

Chris Henshall is the Chair of the HTAi Policy Forum for the period of 2010 to 2013.

Dr. Henshall held the position of Pro-Vice-Chancellor for External Relations at the University of York from January 2005 to April 2010. Prior to this, he had been Director of the Science and Engineering Base Group in the Office of Science and Technology in the Department of Trade and Industry in London, where he was responsible for around £3b (US $5b) per annum of government support for research and innovation. Before joining the Department of Trade and Industry, Dr. Henshall served as Deputy Director or Research and Development in the Department of Health. During his tenure there, he was closely involved in establishing the NHS HTA Programme, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, and, with colleagues in other countries, INAHTA. Over the years, he has also been involved in various initiatives to promote and co-ordinate HTA across Europe.

Dr. Henshall was HTAi's founding President as well as the first Chair of the Policy Forum (2005 - 2007).

Observer - HTAi Interest Sub-Group on HTA in Developing Countries

Joseph L. Mathew is a Pediatric Pulmonologist based at the Advanced Pediatrics Centre in Chandigarh, India and has considerable expertise in vaccination and vaccine preventable diseases of public health importance. Over the past few years, he has been actively involved in the Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) movement, with particular reference to its process and practice in developing countries.

In this context, he has contributed significantly to the Cochrane Collaboration and the establishment of the South Asian Cochrane Network (Centre) in India. He has been keenly associated with EBM teaching programmes in India and abroad. He is a firm supporter of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) to optimize health care resources in developing countries. He has contributed significantly to many international HTA meetings and was designated as Chair, ‘HTAi Interest Sub-Group on HTA in Developing Countries’ at the HTAi 2008 Annual Meeting in Montreal. Since then, he has been working with a group of enthusiastic people across the world to initiate and sustain HTA activities in developing countries.

Observer - Editor in Chief: International of Technology Assessment in Health Care

Research professor Marjukka Mäkelä is a specialist in general practice and holds a PhD in primary care from the University of Helsinki (1990) and an MSc in clinical epidemiology from McMaster University (1994). She has worked as a general practitioner for 15 years and as a university teacher of general practice for 12 years, currently at the University of Copenhagen. From 1991, she has been a health services researcher at the National Institute for Health and Welfare where, since 2000, she is the director of the Finnish Office for Health Technology Assessment (FINOHTA).

Marjukka has also worked as a consultant for the WHO and the Council of Europe on several occasions and participated in international research collaborations looking at guidelines production, implementation, and HTA.
She is the director of the Finnish Branch of the Nordic Cochrane Centre. Professor Mäkelä was the founding editor for national evidence-based guidelines (Current Care) in Finland. She starts as the Chief Editor for the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care in 2010.

Her scientific interests include technology assessment, clinical guidelines, and upper respiratory tract infections. Methodologically she prefers evidence-based approaches, systematic reviews and studies incorporating ethical and economical considerations with clinical questions.

Observer - INAHTA Board of Directors

Dr. Asua holds an MD, a Masters in Public Health (Laval University, Québec, Canada) and a PhD (Basque Country University). He is a Specialist in Preventive Medicine and Public Health.

After practising as a GP for six years, Dr. Asua worked in Occupational Health for five years. From 1992 until June 2009 he was the Head of the Basque Office for Health Technology Assessment (OSTEBA). Currently he is the Director of Knowledge Transfer and Management at the Health Department of the Basque Government.

He has participated in several international collaborating networks and projects, including: EUR-ASSESS, INAHTA collaborating projects, Euroscan, AGREE, ECHTA, GIN, EUnetHTA and GRADE.

He was the Chairman of INAHTA from 1996 to 1999 (vice chairman the previous year) and a member of the Executive Committee until 2001. Currently he is one of the directors of the INAHTA Board and he is the INAHTA observer for the HTAi Board, as part of the MOU between these organisations.

Observer: Institute of Health Economics (Secretariat host)

John is the Senior Policy Director for the Institute of Health Economics (IHE) which is the host  organization for the HTAi secretariat. Prior to joining the IHE he served as Vice-President of Strategic Planning and Community Engagement with the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority one of Canada’s largest health regions. From 1998 to 2005 he worked with Merck Frosst Canada Ltd in health and industry policy planning (including secondment to Merck Sharpe & Dohme Australia). John worked with the provincial government of Alberta as Director of the Office of the Deputy Minister of Health from 1987 to 1998 in managing significant policy and legislative changes in the Alberta health system.

He has served on many federal/provincial committees in Canada and as a Board member with a number of national health policy academic associations including the Canadian Health Economics Research Association and the Canadian Association for Health Services and Policy Research. John currently serves as the Chair of the Health Care Working Group for PNWER (the Pacific Northwest Economic Region), a US/Canada statutory body focused on public/private leadership on a wide variety of public policy issues and sits on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Association for Population Therapeutics.