Adopting New Medical Technology

What information and decision-making processes determine how and whether an experimental medical technology becomes accepted and used?Adopting New Medical Technology reviews the strengths and weaknesses of present coverage and adoption practices, highlights opportunities for improving both the decision-making processes and the underlying information base, and considers approaches to instituting a much-needed increase in financial support for evaluative research.Essays explore the nature of technological change; the use of technology assessment in decisions by health care providers and federal, for-profit, and not-for-profit payers; the role of the courts in determining benefits coverage; strengthening the connections between evaluative research and coverage decision-making; manufacturers' responses to the increased demand for outcomes research; and the implications of health care reform for technology policy.Table of ContentsFRONT MATTERPART I: SETTING THE STAGE1. INTRODUCTION2. THE NATURE OF TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE: INCENTIVES MATTER!3. THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT ON DECISIONS BY HEALTH CAREPROVIDERS AND PAYERSPART II: PROVIDER DECISIONMAKING4. ROLE OF THE HOSPITAL IN THE ACQUISITION OF TECHNOLOGY5. PHYSICIANPART III: THIRD PARTY PAYER COVERAGE DECISIONS6. DECISIONMAKING IN THE HEALTH CARE FINANCING ADMINISTRATION7. BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD ASSOCIATION INITIATIVES IN TECHNOLOGYASSESSMENT8. KAISER PERMANENTE9. AUTOLOGOUS BONE MARROW TRANSPLANTATION: A MICROCOSM OF THE U.S.HEALTH CARE SYSTEM10. TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT, BENEFIT COVERAGE, AND THE COURTSPART IV: INCREASING THE RATIONALITY OF COVERAGE DECISIONMAKING11. STRENGTHENING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN EVALUATIVE RESEARCH ANDCOVERAGE DECISIONMAKING12. MANUFACTURER13. PAYING FOR EVALUATIVE RESEARCH14. HEALTH CARE REFORM: SOME REFLECTIONS ON TECHNOLOGYAPPENDIXESA. WORKSHOP AGENDAB. CONTRIBUTORSINDEX