Job Description

Pharmaceutical Policy Specialist provides expert technical support to the National Department of Health (NDoH) in providing secretariat and technical support to the ministerially appointed Expert Review and National Essential Medicines List Committees through the Essential Drugs Programme (EDP) in order to produce finalised Standard Treatment Guidelines (STGs) and Essential Medicines List (EML) and supporting technical documents (NEMLC reports, technical medicine reviews). The tools and lessons learnt in the application of the health technology assessment (HTA) process in the selection of essential medicines is the foundation for the implementation of HTA in support of National Health Insurance (NHI) in South Africa.

Key Performance Areas

• Establish and foster relationships with the ERCs, NEMLC, NDOH teams and other stakeholders involved in the review of the STGs and EML

• Ensure adequate engagement of ERCs and NEMLC and all relevant stakeholders under the direction of the NDOH team
• Establish and foster relationships with stakeholders involved in the establishment of a formalised, co-ordinated HTA process
• Manage and support the full-day combined ERC and NEMLC technical meetings as per the year-planner (generally scheduled on a monthly basis) in order to ensure continuity of relationships with Committee members
• Support the management and co-ordination of the ERCs to review and update the EML and STGs; and to perform rapid reviews and/or costing analyses, as required

• Manage, plan, and coordinate the development of an evidence-based review process for the STGs and EML for Primary Healthcare (PHC), and Adult Hospital Level.
• Manage and support the prioritisation list and project plan for the ERCs and NEMLC

• Review the draft version of the minutes of the ERC meeting, prior to submission to the Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson for review

• Support with the preparation of chapters (STGs per disorder group) and supporting NEMLC reports with supporting rapid reviews and economic analyses, as required for tabling at quarterly NEMLC meetings in accordance with the project plan

• Support and manage the grading of the recommendations (historic and current) transitioning from the SORT- to the GRADE-approach and co-ordinate the description of the GRADE-methodology in the preface of the guidelines

• Manage and support the extraction of the EMLs from the finalised STGs and EMLs

• Update the therapeutic interchange database for the updated editions of the STGs and EML

• Support and manage the table of contents and the indexing of the medicines and conditions for the updated editions of the STGs and EML

• Support with the development of the final NEMLC report per chapter for changes made to the updated editions of the STGs and EML; and the development of implementation tools highlighting updates in the new editions of the STGs and EML for publishing in the public domain to promote transparency

• Support with the preparation of the final NEMLC-approved rapid reviews and economic analyses for publishing in the public domain

• Support the appendices to the STGs and EML

• Apply ethical and professional standards.

• Support the NDoH and participate in activities related to the establishment of a formalised, co-ordinated HTA process

Required Minimum Education and Experience:

• Pharmacy university degree with postgraduate degree in Public Health with minimum 3-year relevant experience.

Closing date: 08 February 2024

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