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Health Policy Advisory Committee on Technology (HealthPACT)
HealthPACT oversights a national horizon scanning program/early warning system for new and emerging health technologies to provide advance notice to jurisdictional health departments in Australia and New Zealand. HealthPACT also offers jurisdictional representatives opportunities to exchange information and evaluate the potential impact of emerging technologies on their respective health systems. Details can be found at the HealthPACT website here.
Objectives
Horizon scanning, or a technolgy early warning system provides 'state of play' documents that provide current information on new and emerging technolgies to alert health planners and policy makers of their advent and potential impact, in terms of safety and cost, before they are introduced into the health system.
Horizon scanning/early warning assists health planners and policy makers to control and monitor the introduction of new health technologies and assists in the prioritisation and allocation of resources to ensure maximum utilisation of resources at least cost.
The objectives of horizon scanning/early warning system are to:
- identify new and emerging technologies that potentially have majot implications for the health system
- assist in the control of diffusion of new and emerging technologies in the health system
- rationalise adoption and use of new and emerging technologies
- assess areas of change
- identify under used technolgies
- identify broader health problems
- long term planning, anticipate future needs.
HealthPACT governance
HealthPACT is a sub-committee of the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council (AHMAC) reporting directly to the Clinical, Technical and Ethical Principal Committee (CTEPC).
HealthPACT comprises of representatives from all State and Territory health departments, the Australian Government Departments of Health & Ageing and Veterans Affairs, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC), the New Zealand Ministry of Health and the New Zealand District Health Boards.
The Victorian Government jurisdictional representative on HealthPACT is Dr Paul Fennessy, Manager, Genetics and Health Technology Program (see below for contact details).
Enquiries / Contact
Enquiries about HealthPACT should be directed to Dr Paul Fennessy on phone (03) 9096 2142 or email paul.fennessy@health.vic.gov.au.
