The Asia-Pacific region has the biggest diabetes burden in the world. Economic disparity in this region results in diabetes care that is quite variable. Diabetes Mellitus is a common and chronic disease, associated with severe and costly microvascular and macrovascular complications. New treatments for diabetes and its complications can have a dramatic impact on medical budget. To help allocate health care funds for diabetes intervention wisely, Health Technology Assessment (HTA) has been used extensively worldwide. HTA pratices in Asia Pacific region differ by country. Countries like Korea have just started to implement HTA. Countries like China have no formal HTA, but are planning to incorporate it in the future.

There are important challenges in performing HTA in this region. Firstly, health system reform in some countries like China is still ongoing. Secondly, few HTA rulings in this region have been done. Thirdly, data on cost and resource utilitization are limited.

The proposed session intends to identify key issues that need considered to conduct HTA in the Asia-Pacific region. Existing HTA experiences in diabetes interventions will be shared. The session will be chaired by Mingliang Zhang, Ph.D. and consist of three sections:

- Introduction to the Korean Health Techonology Appraisal process, with implications for the assessment chronic disease, in particular diabetes by Bong-min Yang, Ph.D.

- Discussion of the proposed Chinese Health Technology Appraisal system with implications for diabetes interventions by Gordon Liu, Ph.D.

- Lessons learned from recent HTA rulings on diabetes treatments in Australia by Jianming He, MA