Health Technology Assessment International - HTAi
HTAi is an international not-for-profit society dedicated to supporting the development, communication, understanding, and use of health technology assessment around the world, promoting the introduction of innovations and improved effectiveness in the use of healthcare resources. (www.htai.org)

Laura Sampietro-Colom President of HTAi Society

Brazilian Ministry of Health
The Brazilian Ministry of Health is an agency of the Federal Executive Branch in charge of organizing and elaborating public plans and policies focused on health promotion, prevention, and healthcare for the Brazilian people.

The role of the Ministry is to ensure the conditions for the protection and recovery of the population’s health, reducing illness, controlling endemic and parasitic diseases, and improving health surveillance, thereby providing better quality of life for Brazilians.

MISSION: “To promote the population’s health through the integration and establishment of partnerships with Federal agencies, States, Municipalities, private enterprise, and society, thus contributing to the improvement of quality of life and the exercise of citizenship."

Minister Alexandre Padilha, Ministry of Health, Brazil Honorary Chair of 8th Annual Meeting of HTAi 2011

Secretariat of Science, Technology, and Strategic Inputs (SCTIE)
The Secretariat of Science, Technology, and Strategic Inputs (SCTIE), under the Ministry of Health, is in charge of implementing policies for pharmaceutical care, evaluating and incorporating technologies into the Unified National Health System, and promoting the health sector’s industrial and scientific development. In the area of science and technology, the Secretariat is responsible for promoting research development in the country in order to target investments by the Federal government to meet the country’s public health needs.

Together with other ministries and government agencies, the Secretariat orients the policy of the Health Industrial Complex for the public sector, fostering the development of the pharmaceutical, equipment, and health technologies industry. The Federal government’s aim is thus to make Brazil independent of the foreign market.

Since 2003, the Ministry of Health, in partnership with the Ministry of Science and Technology and Federal and State research foundations like FINEP, CNPq, and CAPES, earmarked R$700 million (U$400 million) for 3,600 studies on Brazil’s main public health challenges. More than 400 academic institutions have headed these research projects. Such investment is the material expression of the understanding by the Ministry of Health concerning the priority of promoting research in a country that aims to improve healthcare for its citizens and boost the production of relevant scientific knowledge.

Professor Carlos Augusto Grabois Gadelha Secretary of Science, Technology and Strategic Products, Ministry of Health, Brazil Chair of 8th Annual Meeting of HTAi 2011

Department of Science and Technology in Health (DECIT)
The Department of Science and Technology in Health (DECIT), part of the Secretariat of Science, Technology, and Strategic Inputs under the Ministry of Health, has as its main objective to encourage and increase the development of health research in order to meet the needs of the Unified National Health System (SUS) and the Brazilian people’s health demands. The Department’s mission is to provide an approach between scientific knowledge and decision-makers and policy-makers at the three levels, Federal, State, and Municipal.

To meet its main objective, DECIT works according to the guidelines of the National Agenda for Health Research Priorities (ANPPS), consolidated in 2004 during the 2nd National Conference on Science, Technology, and Innovation in Health.

The actions developed by DECIT target the following areas: research promotion; increased government regulatory capacity in the field of science, technology, and innovation in health; and dissemination of scientific and technological advances in health. (www.saude.gov.br)

Flávia Tavares Silva Elias Coordinator of Health Technology Assessment– DECIT/MS

National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA)
The mission of the National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) is to protect and promote the population’s health by guaranteeing the health safety of products and services. The Agency’s various responsibilities include: coordinate the National Health Surveillance System; promote and conduct studies and research in the area of its attributions; set standards and norms, and propose, monitor, and implement policies, guidelines, and actions in health surveillance; set standards and norms on limits for contaminants, toxic waste, disinfectants, heavy metals, and other substances and materials that involve health risks; intervene temporarily in the administration of manufacturing organizations that are funded, subsidized, or maintained with public resources, as well as in service providers and/or exclusive or strategic producers in supplying the national market, in accordance with the specific legislation. (www.anvisa.org.br)

Dirceu Brás Aparecido Barbano Director Chairman of National Health Surveillance Agency – ANVISA

Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ)
Linked to the Ministry of Health, the Foundation conducts activities that include research development; provision of reference hospital and outpatient services; manufacturing of vaccines, drugs, reagents, and diagnostic kits; teaching and human resources training; information and communication in health, science, and technology; quality control of products and services; and implementation of social programs. The Foundation houses more than 7,500 employees and professionals under various contracts, a workforce that is proud to be at the service of life. (www.fiocruz.br)

Paulo Ernani Gadelha Vieira President of Oswaldo Cruz Foundation