On 27th January this year at the Okopowa Center in Warsaw the European Cancer Patient Coalition, along with the Polish Cancer Patient Coalition invited leaders of oncological patient organizations from all over Poland to participate in the „HTA MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY HTA IN POLAND AND EUROPEAN UNION” workshop.

Thirty representatives from 16 different oncological patient organizations took part in the meeting.

The starting point for the ongoing workshops was the presentation of the HTA eLearning module available on ECPC.org/edu/hta by Beata Ambroziewicz, a member of the ECPC Board. As continuation, prof. Marcin Czech, ex Minister of Health, HTA expert, explained the process of HTA (the Health Technology Assessment) in Poland joined by excellent experts: Lidia Szteliga main specialist in the Department of Drug Management from the National Health Fund, Anna Protas specialist, from the Department of Drug Policy and Pharmacy of the Ministry of Health, Aneta Sitarska Haber, from the Association for Good Clinical Practice in Poland, Joanna Parkitna director of the Department of Health Technology Assessment (AOTMiT) and Monika Duszyńska lawyer from Law for Lifesciences, specialised in medical law. The PKPO spokesman Aleksandra Rudnicka was responsible for moderating the meeting.

After a very interesting lecture and panel discussion part of the HTA workshop, leaders were divided into 5 groups, each joined by the experts. Representatives of patient organizations were asked to set challenges and possible solutions to improve areas:
• Clinical trials group with the guidance from Aneta Sitarska Haber
• the Department of Health Technology Assessment group with the guidance from Joanna Parkitna
• Refunds the Ministry of Health with the guidance from Anna Protas
• Implementations by the National Health Fund with the guidance from Lidia Szteliga
• Other mechanisms of access to medicines with the guidance from Monika Duszyńska
All gathered recommendations were written on boards.

The leaders spoke positively about the workshop, emphasizing that this is very necessary and valuable knowledge for representatives of patient organizations as well as patients themselves.

Organizers passed the access to the polish HTA e learning module with a request to share widely information among their circles.
As a summary of the workshop, the Polish Cancer Patient Coalition posted on their website wide information along with pictures from the meeting (in Polish).