Business Policy and Strategy

The Changing Economics of Medical Technology

---

This volume summarizes the second in a series of Institute of Medicine workshops whose intent is to examine critically the process by which biomedical research is translated into actual benefits in medical practice. Contemporary biomedical research has given us a rich harvest of innovation— new pharmaceuticals, biotechnology products, medical devices, and clinical procedures—which in the aggregate essentially define modern medicine. As always, such success is accompanied by challenges and problems. Not least among those challenges and problems is the fact that the economics of medical innovation itself has changed substantially. The cost of research and development (R&D)—particularly for the regulated medical technologies such as pharmaceuticals and devices—has escalated dramatically over the past two decades. Significant factors associated with higher R&D costs include the shift in research emphasis toward more complex chronic conditions and, more importantly, demands for more extensive demonstration of safety, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness. Simultaneously, the economic returns to the innovator have become increasingly constrained by a host of policies intended to contain health care expenditures. These policies take varied forms, but not infrequently they raise barriers to technology adoption, restrict reimbursement, and force price concessions among technology suppliers. In addition, we see the emergence of models of "managed care," defined for our purposes to include various entities ranging from health maintenance organizations to modified fee- for-service programs that attempt to create incentives for physicians and hospitals to provide more cost-effective care. These policies will have implications for technology diffusion as well as for its development

---

Availability

No copy data

Detail Information

Series Title

-

Call Number

-

Publisher

: ., 1991

Collation

1-225

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

0-309-55594-9

Classification

NONE

Content Type

-

Media Type

-

Carrier Type

-

Edition

-

Subject(s)

The Changing Economics of Medical Technology

Specific Detail Info

-

Statement of Responsibility

-

Other version/related

File Attachment

Comments

---

You must be logged in to post a comment