About CEESTAHC Society

CEESTAHC Society website: https://www.ceestahc.org/

CEESTAHC =
Central and Eastern European Society of Technology Assessment in Health Care

CEESTAHC Society was founded in Krakow in 2003 from the initiative of professionals in the fields of EBM, HTA and quality assurance in clinical trials.

CEESTAHC's mission is an integration of progressive communities of Central and Eastern Europe countries for the exchange of information, transfer of experiences and implementation of joint research programs. A main aim is development and progress of standards and methods of assessment of drug and non-drug health technologies in Central and Eastern Europe. An additional goal is to develop and promote a common language, which will allow various subjects of the health care system to communicate.

Currently, we conduct the most intensive actions within nine major activities:

1. EBHC Symposium  |  2. Projects  |  3. Publications  |  4. Courses  |  5. Thursday Dinners  |  6. Local government  |  7. Publishing  |  8. Conferences  |  9. Websites

1. EBHC Symposium

Every year, since 2006, the International Evidence-Based Health Care Symposium has been bringing together experts who build and reform the healthcare system in Europe and worldwide. Too us, it is proof of the legitimacy of this scientific initiative.

In recent years, we have successfully organized 18 editions of the Symposium in Krakow, which resulted in the exchange of experiences, establishing contacts and cooperation between Polish and foreign scientific communities. About 200-300 HTA specialists, decision makers, patients and representatives of science from over a dozen countries participated in each edition. We are proud and pleased to note that many of them are world-renowned experts representing European and international organizations dealing with the economics and quality of medical services. top

2. Projects

Usually, we carry out projects in cooperation with other non-governmental organisations from Poland, Europe and other parts of the world.
  • Healthy liver. CEESTAHC's National Health-Promoting Programme launched in collaboration with Gwiazda Nadziei Foundation and Europejska Fundacja Rozwiązywania Problemów Zdrowotnych) the European Foundation of Resolving Health Problems), developed a national health promoting educational programme concerning the prevention of liver diseases: “Healthy Liver”. Its aim is education – on how to prevent the development of chronic liver diseases, especially virus-based, and also how to take care of this organ; (optional) free-of charge diagnosis of hepatitis C; the long-term aim is the reduction of chronic liver disease incidence.
  • A Healthy return to work. The aim of the project is to initiate a discussion concerning the local solutions offering health-oriented and professional support to people with autoimmune diseases. The discussion is addressed to doctors – occupational medicine practitioners, AME, decision makers in healthcare, employers, public institutions and payers (ZUS, KRUS and others).
  • Fit for Work Project. CEESTAHC, along with the Fit for Work Europe Coalition, implemented the Polish edition of the project titled: Economic, social and health implications of the results of the incidence to the musculoskeletal disease in Poland in comparison to other countries of the European Union.
  • Move to Work. Move to Work examination – Being efficient at work is a continuation of the Polish edition of the international project Fit and Work launched in 2011. The main aim of the Move to Work examination– Being efficient at work is the collection of reliable data concerning presenteeism and absenteeism in Poland along with the selected epidemiological data in order to assess indirect costs caused by IMIDs in Poland.
  • Pneumococcus. Local governments are obliged to fulfil those duties. And for them, we created a Model programme of preventing pneumococcal infections among adults. It contains all elements of a health prevention programme defined in AOTMiT recommendations, including epidemiology, action plan, costs and list of interventions characterised by proven effectiveness. It is fully compliant with the recommendations of the Health Technology Assessment and Pricing Agency regarding the elaboration of health policy programs.
  • HCV. The role of local governments in prevention and diagnosis – model solutions. Prevention and diagnosis of hepatitis C in local government projects in 2020. The aim of the project is raising awareness of hepatitis C and creating a platform for discussion between experts and local government decision makers about possible activities supporting e.g. early diagnosis.
  • Stroke. Every patient is important. Project consisting of a series of educational debates with various stakeholders of the healthcare system related to stroke prevention. With our Project, we want to raise awareness of the weight of the problem of strokes in public health, the importance of prevention, the social costs and indicate the importance of the local government in giving the final shape to the branch of the healthcare system that affects the patient directly. We want to involve the creators of healthcare policies and regional opinion formers in the debate concerning the role of particular stakeholders of the healthcare system, and to create model, modern solutions in the key public health areas with the local government involved.
  • Influenza. Model health policy programme for local governments concerning influenza control in risk groups. At the beginning of 2017, CEESTAHC started collaborating with the National Influenza Control Programme regarding health education and catalysing effective activities for creating and carrying out preventive programs and limiting the health, social and economic outcomes connected to the influenza virus infection and post-influenza complications and also took patronage over the informative campaign of the OPZG. The initiator of the cooperation was the Chairperson of the Scientific Council of the National Influenza Control Program – prof. dr hab. med. Adam Antczak, Vice-Rector for the Clinical Affairs of the Medical University in Łódź.
top

3. Publications

We share the results of all our project regularly and free of charge. They are divided into sections: top

4. Courses

What has an anteater pregnancy for a refund? And a hippo pregnancy? In order to find out you need to take part in one of our courses... As a result of many years of experience in the field of education, we believe that the transfer of difficult issues in a difficult form creates difficulties in understanding. Sounds obvious, right? We explored this seemingly trivial idea and in the beginning of 2012 we started a program of a total change of courses formula. The first courses carried out in the new formula met with such a positive response of participants that it exceeded all our expectations. Currently we offer the following courses:
  • EBM Basic and Advanced Course
  • HTA Basic and Advanced Course
  • Pricing Course
  • Medical Databases Accelerated Course
All our courses can be adjusted to individual needs and conducted as closed trainings in any place. The scope of modifications to course program as well as the financial terms are discussed individually. top

5. Thursday Dinners

Spotkanie te stanowią rodzaj ustawicznego samokształcenia realizowanego przez Stowarzyszenie CEESTAHC. Uczestnicy spotkań kolejno przygotowują wykłady i warsztaty na określone tematy. Obiady czwartkowe odbywają się w Krakowie w czwartki co dwa tygodnie – wstęp wolny. Warunkiem uczestnictwa jest zobowiązanie się do przygotowania wykładu na określony temat i wygłoszenia go w wyznaczonym terminie. Nazwa wzięła się oczywiście od historycznych obiadów czwartkowych króla Stanisława Augusta Poniatowskiego. Były to spotkania intelektualistów polskich organizowane na wzór paryskich salonów literackich. W latach 1770-77 odbywały się regularnie co tydzień w czwartki na Zamku Królewskim w Warszawie, a latem w Łazienkach. Celem spotkań były rozmowy na tematy związane ze sztuką i nauką oraz omawianie dzieł literackich. Special Thursday Dinners Special Thursday Dinners are held periodically. Lectures which were most popular on regular Thursday Dinners are presented then. Very often, specially invited experts give guest lecturers. top

6. Local government

Cooperation with the Local Government Units (LGU) is one of our key activities. It started in 2009 with the individual consultations of healthcare programmes. Virtually every CEESTAHC project is reflected in activities for local governments or with local governments.
  • A series of conferences in 2010. The national conferences were dedicated to preparing preventive programmes by the Local Government Units (LGU) regarding the requirements of the bill for publicly financed healthcare (the so-called “Act on the guaranteed benefits package”). The form of some of them was extended by transforming public healthcare units. 9 conferences were held.
  • A series of workshops in 2011. The educational meetings were dedicated to secondary prevention for patients who survived the acute coronary syndrome. 12 workshops and 3 conferences were held.
  • A series of conferences in 2012. The meeting was dedicated to the model health programmes for the local government units. 5 conferences were held.
  • Series of conferences in 2013-2014. “A healthy return to work” project. The role of the active public institutions resulted in the series of conferences for local governments. 7 conferences were held.
  • Contest for students. The role of active public institutions – the contest for students for the best health programme was held.
  • A series of conferences in 2015.11 conferences were held.
  • A series of conferences in 2016.12 conferences were held.
  • A series of conferences in 2017.5 conferences were held.
Experience gained through years of intensive educational work resulted in a partnership programme for local governments: www.dobreprogramyzdrowotne.pl top

7. Publishing

Growing interest of pharmacoeconomics inspired us to start a publishing business. We organized a self-publishing editorial team, which has developed two positions so far. Books are Biblio-Teczka CEESTAHC (Bookcase of CEESTAHC) publishing serie. top

8. Conferences

Najważniejsza współorganizowana przez nas konferencja to HTAi 2004 1st Annual Meeting, która odbyła się w Krakowie w dniach 30 maja – 2 czerwca 2004 roku. Podczas konferencji zaprezentowano wyniki uzyskane w dziedzinie HTA oraz zastosowania analiz opłacalności w systemach refundacyjnych funkcjonujących w poszczególnych krajach na całym świecie. Konferencja została zorganizowana wspólnie przez instytucje pochodzące z krajów Grupy Wyszehradzkiej, co zwłaszcza w 2004 roku, w kontekście wstąpienia do Unii Europejskiej 10 europejskich państw z tego regionu, miało specjalne znaczenie. Wśród gości byli przedstawiciele następujących instytucji: rządowe agencje HTA, Światowa Organizacja Zdrowia, Bank Światowy, Ministerstwa Zdrowia, firmy ubezpieczeń zdrowotnych, centra naukowe i przemysłowe, instytuty naukowe i badawcze z całego świata. Licznie uczestniczyły w tym wydarzeniu organizacje państwowe i pozarządowe: naukowe, biznesowe i polityczne. Konferencja ta, jako pierwsze tak duże wydarzenie, stanowiła wyzwanie dla Krakowa i dla Polski, promując je jako miejsce spotkania przedstawicieli różnych światów: medycyny, nauki i polityki. Gościem specjalnym był prezydent Lech Wałęsa. Honorowymi patronami wydarzenia byli Ministrowie Zdrowia Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej, Czech i Węgier oraz Prezes Narodowego Funduszu Zdrowia Węgier. top

9. Websites

Strona https://www.ceestahc.org/ jest jedną z najbardziej aktywnych witryn w branży. Strona główna zbliża się do 400.000 wyświetleń. Oto niektóre popularne funkcjonalności naszej strony: top
en_GBEnglish (UK)
pl_PLPolski en_GBEnglish (UK)