Course syllabus
COURSE INFORMATION
We greet you welcome to the course EEN236 Health Technology Assessment, to be conducted in Gothenburg.
COURSE PERIOD
31 August - 1 November, 2026
Please be noticed that onsite attendance on the 31st August is compulsory.
AIM
The aim of this course is to give students a foundational understanding of Health Technology Assessment (HTA), which refers to the systematic evaluation of properties, effects, and/or impacts of health technology, considering a multidisciplinary process to evaluate the clinical, social, economic, organizational, and ethical aspects of a health intervention or health technology. With the acquired knowledge and skills, the students will be able to evaluate medical devices and solutions from multiple perspectives.
The course will include three specific areas. Firstly, an overall understanding of the role of the multidimensional aspects of Health Technology Assessment, within evidence-based healthcare. Secondly, basic of microeconomic theories and its applications in health and healthcare analysis. Thirdly, effectiveness and in particular cost-effectiveness analyses as an integral part of Health Technology Assessments of healthcare interventions/medical devices. The figure below portraits the specific components of HTA to be covered by the course.
COURSE COMPONENTS
The course will include three specific areas. Firstly, a broad understand about Health Technology Assessment with focus on clinical outcome/effectiveness as well as social, organizational, environmental and ethical aspects. Secondly, basic of microeconomic theories and its applications in health and healthcare analysis. Thirdly, effectiveness and in particular cost-effectiveness analyses as an integral part of Health Technology Assessments of healthcare interventions/medical devices.
In the first area, clinical effectiveness and patient outcomes, social, organization and ethical dimensions of medical technologies will be discussed in relation to its assessment for application in the health sector and further studied in a group work applied to case examples of medical devices. In the second area, demand, supply, equilibrium in market and economic efficiency in general as well as in health sector will be covered. In the third area, methods for the assessment of healthcare intervention effectiveness in terms of health outcomes and patient benefits as well as key components of health economic evaluations are covered, including basic calculations of key cost-effectiveness results within Health Technology Assessment reports. Further, applications of economic evaluations of medical devices and equity in health and healthcare utilization will be covered during lectures and laboratory sessions in the course.
COURSE ACTIVITIES
- Online, video and classroom lectures
- Group discussion and assignments
- Oral presentation of group work
- Laboratory
LEARNING OUTCOMES
(after completion of the course the student should be able to)
- To describe and critically discuss Health Technology Assessment methods and processes
- for understanding how the clinical effectiveness and patient outcomes of medical devices are being assessed
- for understand the effects of medical devices from social, organizational and ethical viewpoints
- for understanding the role of economic evaluations of medical devices - To apply and present Health Technology Assessment principles to cases of medical devices, in writing and orally
- To understand microeconomic theories and its applications in health and healthcare and in HTA context
- To describe concepts and designs of economic evaluation of health care interventions
- To perform basic calculations of key components in economic evaluation of health care interventions and equity measurements
SKILLS AND ABILITIES
- Understanding about concept of HTA and its various aspects
- Basic Microeconomic theories
- Cost-effectiveness and data analysis
- Understanding how HTA outcomes can be used in budget allocation and Health Policy
- Communicating HTA knowledge with stakeholders
JUDGEMENT AND APPROACH
- Discussing about clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness analysis
- Balancing HTA from social, organizational, economic, environmental and ethical perspective
- Describe uncertainty in evidence of cost-effectiveness of health technologies
COURSE-SPECIFIC PREREQUISITE
Same as admission to the program
CONTACT INFORMATION
- Professor Jahangir Khan, Course leader
- Hadi Zarshamfar, Education Secretary, Student and Education Office, Chalmers Operations Support
TEACHING TEAM
Pia Johansson
Akbar Kabir
Email: mohammod.akbar.kabir@gu.se
Constanze Wartenberg
Email: constanze.wartenberg@vgregion.se
Jahangir Khan
Email: jahangir.khan@gu.se
COURSE SYLLABUS
https://www.chalmers.se/en/education/your-studies/find-course-and-programme-syllabi/course-syllabus/EEN236/?acYear=2025/2026
COURSE SCHEDULE
(Preliminary)
Compulsory attendance on the 31st August
https://cloud.timeedit.net/chalmers/web/staff/ri17Y158X25Z05Q6Z56ge270y7056Y2Q50ZgQY6Qu34bQ502.html
COURSE LITTERATURE
- Health technology assessment of medical devices - WHO Medical device technical series, ISBN 978 92 4 150136 1. World Health Organization, 2011. Geneva.
- Morris, S., Devlin N., Parkin. D., Spencer, A. Economic Analysis in Health Care, 2nd Edition. Wiley. 2012. London.
- Wagstaff A. The demand for health: theory and applications Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 1986, 40, 1-11.
- Additional material, e.g., scientific articles, will be supplied via the Student Portal
EXAMINATION
Examination form
The students are supposed to complete all three moments below for passing with different grades in the course:
Module 1: Oral examination (seminar) and group assignment (Written submission), 3 credits
Module 2: Laboratory (completion of economic evaluation exercises), 2 credits
Module 3: Written Examination, 2.5 credit
Grading scale, per module and for full course
In module 1: For pass grade, the students must present orally and in writing the Health Technology Assessment assignment and submit the assignments on microeconomic theories, models and applications. Only pass grade is given.
In module 2: For pass grade, the students must complete the individual exercises through laboratory assignments. Only pass grade is given.
In module 3: the students must obtain 50% of the total marks for pass grade, 70% for pass with credit grade and 85% for pass with distinction.
The grade in the entire course will be determined by the grade in module 3, while the students must get pass grade in module 1 and module 2.
USE OF AI TOOLS
Students are allowed to use AI tools, such as Chat-GPT or Copilot, but a statement of such usages is be notified.
Note. The course examiner may assess individual students in other ways than what is stated above if there are special reasons for doing so, for example if a student has a decision from Chalmers about disability study support.