The focus of lecture this week was the relationship between healthcare and economics, specifically focusing on the WHO healthcare technology assessment (HTA). This assessment polled many countries on what qualities in vaccines, medical devices, surgical interventions, etc. are most important to them. Many countries ranked safety and clinically effectiveness as the most important qualities; however, some other qualities included economic considerations, ethical concerns, and acceptability to patients. I think it is interesting that from vaccines to population level health interventions the most important things to almost all countries are safety and clinical effectiveness. This just reveals how universally important these qualities are and demonstrates that public health should place an emphasis on these topics.

It was also interesting to apply the HTA standards to a medical device of our choosing in the discussion this week. I enjoyed learning more about my chosen medical device, chest tubes, as well as learning about other medical devices more in depth. Specifically, I did not realize how much consideration goes into the feasibility of introducing a medical device to low-tech, low GDP countries like those in West Africa. Chest tubes seem like a reasonably simple device to implement in clinics across Africa; however, looking at concerns such as the education needed to use them reveals how complicated their implementation into clinics could actually be. I think this week I could have better researched what medical devices are already in use in Africa. For example, after reading one of my peers’ posts, I looked up the prevalence of X-ray machines in Africa and learned much more about how the machines are acquired and maintained in these countries and the struggles that doctors in Africa have faced