Classic health technology assessment (HTA) is based on safety, efficacy, and costs. However, in the dynamic world of medicine, “real-world” experience is used to improve HTA. Aggregating evidence is a constant challenge. Physicians are traditionally trained in professionalism (knowledge and skills) and compassion, concentrating on the patient and disease rather than the technology. Currently, medical education also emphasizes quality of care by promoting standardization, and reducing mistakes by root cause analysis. We aimed to integrate the key parameters of safety, effectiveness, quality measures, economic aspects, and assessment guidelines for real-world experience in medical education.

A group of medical students participated in a targeted HTA-orientated education program, which focused on the identification of challenges and barriers in the adoption of health technologies, and then completed a structured survey.

The program included 243 students. They raised four major emerging challenges: (i) to initiate a culture of quality and HTA-targeted perception for individual physicians; (ii) to better understand the role of different stakeholders in the health system; (iii) to be exposed to considerations of budget allocation; and (iv) to incorporate patient preferences, expectations, and engagement so that patient-centered care becomes a critical part of HTA.

Incorporating values of HTA-targeted quality at an early stage of medical education, while future physicians are developing their professional identity, may create a professional, quality-focused leadership group in health care. The understanding and implementation of these “new” dimensions may serve as a platform for building smart capability to ensure better decision making processes among caregivers and medical managers.