There is increasing acceptance that proper management of medical technologies and physical infrastructure is essential for the attainment of affordable and sustainable quality healthcare delivery. Healthcare Technology Management (HTM) aims for optimal acquisition and utilisation of healthcare technologies - and proper planning, evaluation and assessment of health facilities - as part of efficient and cost-effective healthcare services (see www.htm-matters.com  for a guide to Best-Practice HTM).

Against this background, the HTM Programme at the University of Cape Town serves to build capacity and broaden competencies in the general areas of Assessment, Innovation and Management (AIM) of Healthcare Infrastructure and Technologies (HIT), with a focus on under-resourced healthcare environments (click here for graphic of AIM-HIT Framework).

UCT’s HTM programme, housed within the Division of Biomedical Engineering in the Department of Human Biology (Health Sciences Faculty) offers a unique mix of capacity-building opportunities, with options ranging from single courses presented over a few days to full-time postgraduate research. Programme content includes the areas of specialisation known as Clinical Engineering and Hospital Engineering, with new additions addressing topics such as post-occupation assessment of health facilities and architectural engineering approaches to airborne infection control.

Class of 2011 on site-visit at
new Khayelitsha District Hospital

The Green Paper on the proposed National Health Insurance has been released. We underline the importance of Healthcare Infrastructure and Technology Management (HITM) structures, processes and activities in ensuring an affordable, effective, efficient, quality-driven and sustainable NHI.

The proposed Medical Device Regulations have also been released (for public comment). The new Regulations place greater emphasis on post-acquisition aspects of safety and performance, including the necessity for competence-based certification of both users and maintainers of medical equipment.

The National Department of Health has established a Ministerial Advisory Committee on Health Technology (MAC-HT) as an oversight body at a critical time in our country's history, given the advent of the NHI. The HTM Programme Convener is a member of the MAC-HT.

The HTM Programme at UCT has established close ties with the CSIR (through a CDC-funded project on airborne infection control) and with the Graduate School of Technology Management at the University of Pretoria. These new partnerships are expected to strengthen both teaching and research activities while adding a new dimension to current activities.

HTM programme participants visited the new Khayelitsha District Hospital (KDH) on 26 September - see picture on left. KDH is due for opening before year-end.

We continue to remember the untimely passing of Dr Sidney Parsons, HTM programme co-convenor, on 1 November 2010. It was through Sidney that the healthcare infrastructure and infection control dimensions were added to the HTM programme. Sidney was also passionate about the role of research in underpinning evidence-based practice (a tribute to Sidney can be accessed here).