Publisher's Synopsis
Technological development in health care is continuing at an ever-increasing pace. One of the concerns of health care planners is that new technologies - namely drugs, devices, and medical procedures - are often widely diffused before systematic evidence has been gathered on their costs and benefits. In addition, existing technologies are not reviewed to ensure that they are being used only in applications where the benefits outweigh the costs.;Within the European Community there is a need to encourage a more rational use of health care technology, and to balance the needs of the health care sector against those of the industries developing new products. This book considers the problems and potential of using economic appraisal in guiding development, diffusion, and use of health technologies. The first section considers the methodology of economic appraisal applied to health care technology, and includes many examples. Later sections review the current state of the art in EC countries and the ways in which economic appraisal might be used in biomedical engineering, clinical and epidemiological research, and in planning and budgetary management for health technologies.;Health care planners and policy makers, economists, and health care technologists.
