After a thorough quality examination, the Austrian Accreditation Council [ÖAR] gave a green light for the start of the international doctoral program in HTA at UMIT [the Health & Life Sciences University in Tyrol]

The international doctoral program in Health Technology Assessment, offered in English, is the final and essential program in the International Continuing Education Program in HTA & Decision Science (HTADS). This program was developed recently by the UMIT Institute of Public Health, Medical Decision Making und Health Technology Assessment under the direction of Professor Siebert. In total, the HTADS program now consists of five different certificate courses related to HTA and decision science, the international Master of Science Program in HTA, Evidence-based Health Care and Decision Science and the international doctoral program in HTA. UMIT, therefore, has developed an internationally distinguished and high-quality platform for university education and training within the health sciences that will be indispensable for healthcare decision-makers in the future.

Health Technology Assessment (HTA) and Decision Science (DS) support healthcare decision-makers.

For Uwe Siebert, the next logical step was to develop the international doctoral program in HTA. Siebert, who teaches Health Technology Assessment and Decision Science at the Harvard University, points out that “in recent years HTA and Decision Science have become increasingly important for healthcare decision-makers, healthcare researchers, and pharmaceutical industry. Therefore, we decided to design a high-quality, comprehensive and international university program for this sector.”

Health Technology Assessment [HTA] is a process designed to systematically appraise medical technologies, procedures and resources and includes the organisational structures through which medical services are delivered. It examines criteria such as effectiveness and safety and costs, while taking into account relevant social, legal, economic and ethical aspects of technology into consideration. Decision Sciences are concerned with the application of quantitative methods that enable decisions made under conditions of uncertainty to be analysed systematically.

UMIT`s research and teaching meets current challenges in the healthcare sector

As a modern private university, UMIT in Hall in Tirol concentrates on new professional and research fields. It thus specialises in the current challenges being faced in healthcare and technology. The main subject areas UMIT focuses on are health sciences, public health, biomedical IT, mechatronics, psychology, physiotherapy, dietetics, nursing science and gerontology. Although UMIT is a “young” university, over the past few years it has already acquired a superb reputation as a research institution through its involvement in national and international research projects. UMIT is owned by the province of Tyrol and, with about 1,300 students, it is Austria’s largest private university.

You can obtain further information about the university’s courses in the fields of Health Technology Assessment (HTA), Evidence-Based Health Care (EBHC) and Decision Science (DS) at our website www.umit.at/htads, via e-mail htads@umit.at or by phone +43 (0)50 8648-67837