Biography

Peter Heimann is a biomedical engineer with the World Health Organization managing the health systems and infrastructure portfolio. He has numerous years of experience in advising national governments on healthcare technology policy formulation and restructuring of national healthcare technology programmes; he has assisted several Ministries of Health in their resource planning and healthcare services implementation plans.

During the last 20 years he has conducted healthcare technology assessment missions to Congo, Kenya, Namibia, Mauritius, Swaziland, Senegal, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Russia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, China, Vietnam, Laos, Sri Lanka, Mexico and Iran for WHO, UNIDO, GTZ, Lux-Development and the Medical Research Council of South Africa.

He has implemented numerous bilateral projects in the field of service provisioning, facility planning and construction; healthcare technology utilization, equipment maintenance and procurement. This included the design and technical support in the implementation of several hospitals and clinic projects in Africa and Asia.

He is the focal point and main developer of the WHO iHTP (integrated healthcare technology package) resource planning tool.

Many developing countries are increasingly dependant on donor assistance to meet the objectives of their health systems. Such assistance often includes infrastructure and equipment, and in some countries, nearly 80 percent of health care physical resources are either directly donated or funded by international donors or foreign governments.

These donations however often do not achieve their intended objectives, and could even constitute an added burden to the health care system they are intended to assist, due to a wide range of systemic policy, organizational as well as technical problems. There is a strong need to improve the donation process and the contribution of donations to health care delivery, to the mutual benefit of both recipients and donors. This is a crucial component of a coherent national health care infrastructure and technology policy which countries need to put in place to make the best use of their scarce resources and enhance the performance of their health systems.

WHO has developed guidelines to this effect, derived from the similar work by a number of organizations, addressing the context, content and process of health care equipment donations, which are applied in a large number of countries worldwide.

Biography

Dr Andrei ISSAKOV has worked in clinical practice and public health for over 30 years. He received his Medical Degree (with honours) from the Russian Medical University in Moscow, and then specialized in surgery, medical education, and public health in Russia and UK. He holds Ph.D. in Paediatric Surgery, and Master's Degree in Public Health. Before joining the World Health Organization in 1985, Dr ISSAKOV has occupied a number of clinical, academic and administrative positions at the Russian Medical University and at one of the major Children's Teaching Hospitals in Moscow.

Over the years of working with WHO, Dr ISSAKOV has provided significant contribution to a number of key WHO programme activities such as strengthening health systems, health sector reform, health policy and systems research, organization and management of health service delivery, quality of care, patient safety, health technology management, and health facilities planning.

One of the principal areas of Dr ISSAKOV's direct responsibility is the Programme on Health Systems Physical Infrastructure and Technology Management. This Programme, initiated by Dr ISSAKOV in 1986 and coordinated by him until now, has developed into a recognized global leader. The Programme has been instrumental in building a sound global knowledge base, strengthening developing countries' capacity for health technology and facilities planning, assessment and management, and in establishing a worldwide network of institutions and individuals working in this area.

Policy and strategy options, guidance on best practices, methodological and training materials, guidelines and other decision-making and management tools developed by the Programme are widely used in all WHO Regions. The Programme has provided a core input into developing Regional Healthcare Technology Strategies in WHO African, American and Eastern Mediterranean Regions, formulating national healthcare technology policies and setting up functioning healthcare technology management systems in many countries worldwide. A number of landmark international forums on the subject convened by the programme throughout the years served as a source of inspiration and guiding principles for improving healthcare technology planning and management to WHO Members States and WHO national and international partners.

Dr ISSAKOV has promoted and supported the establishment of national professional societies for health care engineering and technology assessment and management in many developing countries. He is an Honorary Life-Member of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering (IFMBE), co-founder and Honorary Life-Member of the African Federation for Technology in Healthcare (AFTH), and co-founder and Member of the Board of the Commission for the Advancement of Healthcare Technology Management in Asia (CAHTMA). He is also a Member of the American College of Clinical Engineering (ACCE), American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE), Association for Healthcare Technology and Management (AHCTM), Health Technology Assessment International (HTAi), and International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua).

Dr ISSAKOV is a WHO global focal point for collaboration with the HTAi, International Federation of Hospital Engineering (IFHE), IFMBE, International Hospital Federation (IHF), ISQua, and Public Health Group of the International Union of Architects (IUA-PHG).

Dr ISSAKOV has over 50 publications and papers presented at various international forums on a wide range of public health issues.

The Future of Global HTM Training
Mladen Poluta
Director, HTM Programme, University of Cape Town

Healthcare Technology Management (HTM) is an emerging multi-disciplinary field, applicable at all levels of healthcare delivery in both resource-rich and resource-poor countries. Its scope is expanding to complementary areas such as needs assessment, health technology innovation and health technology assessment. HTM is on the threshold of an exciting new era, with challenges and opportunities for global capacity-building meeting regional, national, institutional and individual needs.

Biography

Mladen Poluta is director/convenor of the Healthcare Technology Management (HTM) Programme offered by the University of Cape Town. After graduating from the University of Witwatersrand with a BSc in Electrical Engineering he worked as a biomedical engineer first in industry and thereafter at two tertiary public sector hospitals.

He joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UCT in 1987 as head of the Medical Electronics (later the Bio-Electric Signal Processing) Group. He formulated the HTM Programme with a specific focus on the current and future needs of the Sub-Saharan Region.

His current interests include healthcare technology innovation, planning and assessment for resource-poor environments; health technology asset management and risk management; human resource competency profiling, and the development of HTM information systems and decision-support tools.

Mladen Poluta has served on the councils of a number of international, regional and national organisations and been a member of advisory committees for the South African Department of Health and Engineering Council. He has also served as a short-term consultant for the World Health Organization, is a board member of the World Health Imaging Alliance and a member of the consultative group for a WHO project on Priority Medical Devices.