Information dissemination

Dissemination of information is an essential part of our activities in addition to supporting, conducting and coordinating research.

A substantial amount of HTA information is produced annually. Hundreds of reports are procuded by various HTA agencies all over the world. We follow the newly published reports actively and pass the information to various actors in Finland. Naturally we also disseminate information on local assessments.

In addition to information on the assessments, we also disseminate information on assessment methodology. Knowing the methodology is important both when conducting assessments and when interpreting or applying their results.

We use particularly our own publications and the web site for providing information.

The international HTA information is screened by Finohta's literature committee which selects material that is to be published in our Ohtanen database (mostly in Finnish) and as TAupdates (in Finnish). The committee also sends information on assessments directly to various national experts.

Several educational events and seminars are also utilised in dissemination activities.

Our communication is not a one-way process. We welcome you to let us know of your ideas and opinions. Those are valuable e.g. when we develop our activities or select targets for assessment. Please contact us.

If you would like to follow international discussion on health technology assessment, take part in the discussion and receive information on assessment meetings, conferences, publications etc., you should become acquainted with the Health outcomes and health technology assessment email list. It is a free list, maintained by NZHTA, an assessment agency in New Zealand.

Other relevant mailing lists include Evidence based health and Public health, maintained by JISCmail. The discussion on these two lists is sometimes lively and, therefore, subscribers should be prepared for a considerable number of email messages per week. Some top experts on evidence based medicine take part in the discussion every now and then, so it may, however, be worthwhile to get acquainted with these lists as well.