HTA review of the year 2010 event

Nearly 110 HTA staff and stakeholders gathered in central London to share ideas and participate in a lively debate on incentives for organ donation.

Event date: 15 June 2010

Event details

The review of the year event, held on 15 June at The Law Society in London, was an all day event where we launched our 2009/10 Annual Review, ‘Making a Difference’. The event included presentations about the HTA's activities, an interactive panel debate and opportunities for networking among people we regulate, others interested in our regulation and HTA staff.

Listen to audio recordings of comments from delegates about the event.

In the morning, Adrian McNeil, HTA Chief Executive, gave an overview of HTA’s work during the last year. Adrian stepped down as Chief Executive in July 2010 and took this opportunity to also examine the HTA’s approach to regulation and its achievements since 2005. Following him, Diana Warwick, Chair of the Authority, spoke about the HTA’s efforts to support human tissue research.

The morning’s presentations also included a perspective from someone we regulate. Operations Director David Haddow at Altrika, which is a Sheffield-based company offering a cell-culturing service that delivers skin cells to patients, spoke about receiving a joint inspection from the HTA and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Christiane Niederlaender, Regulation Manager, who worked with the MHRA on this inspection, described the benefits of a joined-up approach and future plans for the HTA’s joint inspection programme.

You can view the presentations by clicking on the names above.

You can also see Adrian and Diana in the HTA office introducing the Annual Review publication.  

Organ donation: at what cost?

The afternoon's session was interactive and designed to engage the audience in a topical debate relevant to the HTA's remit. Entitled ‘Organ donation: at what cost?’, the debate focused on whether in the future people should receive compensation for donating their organs. The audience was made up of those we regulate from all sectors, as well as people affected by our regulation.

Under the Human Tissue Act 2004, it is illegal to sell organs for transplantation, but we know the demand for organs way exceeds the supply. The aim of the debate was to generate discussion on what the risks, benefits and options may be for paying organ donors. This is the topic of a consultation currently being held by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics which is seeking views on how we should respond to the current demand for organs, sperm, eggs and other human material for use in medical treatment and research.

A series of presentations from a panel explored these issues and Diana Warwick took questions, observations and views from the audience. The panel comprised Hugh Whittall, Director of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, Timothy Statham, Chief Executive of the National Kidney Federation, Leela Barham, independent health economist, and Vassilios Papalois, Consultant Transplant Surgeon at Hammersmith Hospital.

You can view these presentations by clicking on the names above. You can also watch footage of all the presentations on our review of the year 2010 videos page.

Diana took a straw poll of views from the audience, before and after the presentations and discussion (see the results). These answers, which were captured on electronic voting devices, were designed to draw out the ideas and views of the audience on payments for organs. The results, which are shown below, are not a statistically representative sample.

Contact information

Communications Assistant