Health Care Partner Perspective: Bringing Patient Voices into Health Technology

Health technology is a hot topic, particularly when it comes to patient engagement! The Health Technology Assessment (HTA) team at C2E2, is an independent academic group contracted by the BC Ministry of Health to produce Health Technology Assessments. The team will carefully look at the strengths and weaknesses of health care technologies and processes, old or new, and recommend whether they should be used across the province.

How HTA engages patients

These assessments require the help of patient partners, who can share their experiences and weigh in on whether they have found these technologies to be effective and useful. The HTA team works with PVN (as well as one of our health care partners, the BC SUPPORT Unit) to ensure they’re including a wide variety of voices in their projects. Patient partners are involved in the work of the Health Technology Assessment team in two important ways: using their specific experiences as patients, and as individuals.

Getting involved with HTA

Interested in participating in the health technology review process? Projects include a wide range of topics, with everything from electronic monitoring of hand washing to technology that helps manage genetic conditions. While the specific eligibility for projects may vary, the team generally looks for patients who are interested in system transformation and policy changes on the provincial level, or patients who are keen to learn the specifics of different health technologies. This way, the patient partners are able to use their voices to inspire positive changes in the health care system, while also learning about how these changes occur and how the health care system operate.

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