Health Technology Assessment international (HTAi) supports global collaboration and innovation in HTA through its dynamic network of Interest Groups (IGs). These thematic communities provide a dedicated platform for members to engage in focused, collaborative efforts that drive professional exchange, advance methodologies, and develop best practices in HTA. This commentary offers a panoramic overview of all IGs, their evolution, aim, and initiatives. By drawing on diverse stakeholder perspectives, spanning academia, clinical practice, industry, and patient communities, the IGs foster inclusiveness and extend HTAi’s influence to significantly contribute to the broader HTA community. Through activities such as workshops, conference sessions, webinars, publications, and research projects, they offer opportunities for professional development and thought leadership. The IGs’ cross-cutting contributions position them as engines of innovation to ensure HTAi remains at the forefront of shaping a globally relevant, responsive, and ethically grounded HTA ecosystem.

The importance of mentoring for professional development in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) fields is well established. With the increasing prevalence of team science, mentoring that incorporates team science skills is essential. Here, we describe a novel mentoring program designed to develop technical and relational/interpersonal skills for working in multi-disciplinary team science environments and to develop networks to improve collaboration in multi-disciplinary team science. The Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance Translational Education and Mentoring in Science program is a nine-month program consisting of one-on-one mentoring, peer mentoring groups, mentoring resources, and shared learning experiences. Mentees (fellows) are exposed to a wide range of learning opportunities related to the goals of the program. This multi-institutional effort, in its fifth year, has been well received by participants. To date, 95 faculty, post-doctoral fellows, and research scientists have participated in the program as mentees. Participants indicated that they enjoyed the program, identified new networking opportunities, and would recommend it to others. In addition, fellows reported improved relational, technical, and networking skills over the duration of the program. Mentor ratings were also quite favorable. The multi-institutional nature of the program enriched learning and its unique structure combining traditional one-on-one mentoring with peer learning communities has been beneficial to those participating.

Forcibly displaced persons (FDPs) exposed to torture and trauma require multidisciplinary therapies to address their complex needs in mental and physical health. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we explored the efficacy of models of care that integrated psychological and physical interventions for PTSD outcomes. We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsychINFO, and Web of Science databases. We performed the meta-analysis on studies with randomized controlled trials and non-randomized controlled trial designs, followed by a subgroup analysis of moderators. In all meta-analyses, a random-effects model was used with standardized mean differences to accommodate for the heterogeneity of studies and outcome measures. In a meta-analysis of a between-group analysis of 11 studies comprising 610 participants, integrated intervention showed a moderate effect size (Hedges’ g = −0.46 (95% CI −0.80 to −0.12) in reducing PTSD symptoms. The proportion of variation in observed effects reflects 82% of variation in true effects (I2 = 82%). The efficacy of transdisciplinary interventions was higher compared to multidisciplinary models. Moderator analysis found that the type of PTSD measure, format of intervention, and type of personnel providing the intervention were significant predictors of efficacy. Integrated interventions are efficacious in reducing PTSD outcomes for people with FDPs and those exposed to war trauma. Factors such as the type of integration of interventions and service delivery need to be further studied with high-quality designs and larger numbers in future studies.

Multidisciplinary One Health (OH) collaboration coupled with information communication and technology provides an avenue for combating and avoiding emerging and reemerging diseases. In 2020, AFROHUN-Kenya organized a OH App development hackathon to build an application for frontline community health workers to respond to OH challenges. This article describes the purpose, process, benefits and challenges of this hackathon. Forty-nine participants, divided into eight groups took part in the hackathon. The teams ranged from four to eight members, with 55% female. A total of eight applications were developed during the hackathon all of which are in the process of patenting, before deployment as open-source applications. In the post-hackathon survey, 95% of participants indicated that they had a better grasp of the topic because of the team members’ diverse perspectives and that working in multidisciplinary teams had resulted in new friendships and partnerships. In total, 72% of respondents indicated they would be interested in participating in another hackathon. However, 65% of the respondents suggested that the training time be lengthened. This study demonstrates that multidisciplinary hackathons effectively enhance learning, significantly impact communities and improve students’ soft skills, including project and time management, interpersonal communication, motivational strategies and problem-solving.

From a Nordic and British perspective, the history of education is a vibrant field of knowledge production. It invites scholars from the humanities and social sciences to investigate the continuities and changes in education over time, as well as Bildung, nurturing, learning, and teaching. By underlining the breadth of the history of education and using Nordic and British examples, I argue that the field is not shrinking but growing. A broader definition of the field expands the field’s scope beyond historical studies of formal schooling. It also enhances the field’s significance and reveals how it has a meaningful role in research policy, and practice.

Teenagers often present in crisis with risk issues, mainly risk to self but sometimes risk to others. Adolescent violence is commonplace and is not just the remit of adolescent forensic psychiatry. Clinicians may lack confidence assessing risk of violence and can neglect vital areas that are essential to reduce risk. Use of structured violence risk assessments enables the multi-agency professional network to formulate a young person's presentation and their violence in a holistic way and consequently develop targeted risk management plans addressing areas such as supervision, interventions and case management to reduce the risk of future violence. Of the several validated tools developed for young people, the Structured Assessment of Violence Risk – Youth (SAVRY™) is that most used by UK-based forensic adolescent clinicians. This article outlines the epidemiology, causes and purposes of violence among adolescents; discusses types of risk assessment tool; explores and deconstructs the SAVRY; and presents a fictitious risk formulation.

In the STAR*D study, the efficacy of treatments for major depression was examined. It was found that, while many responded to the initial antidepressant treatment, only 30% of participants achieved complete remission. Concerning treatment resistance in depression, there is a recent distinction emerging between treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and difficult-to-treat depression (DTD). Historically, TRD and DTD have been conflated, but it is essential to recognize them as separate entities. While TRD is characterized by a patient’s inadequate response to two or more consecutive antidepressant treatments given for an adequate duration and dosage without achieving acceptable therapeutic effects, DTD describes a clinical category where patients do not achieve full symptom control despite various therapeutic approaches. The recent shift in perspective proposes a more integrated approach for DTD, encompassing psychosocial, biological, and interactive factors. This multifactorial model calls for a multidisciplinary therapeutic intervention, not restricted to pharmacological treatments but also including psychotherapy, neurostimulation, and social interventions. Informing professionals and the general public about the significance of this new approach could mitigate the stigma associated with depression and enhance the quality of care. The future challenge will involve a deeper clinical understanding of DTD and its optimal management by refining available treatments.