New Medical Devices: Invention, Development, and Use (Series on Technology and Social Priorities)

In the past 50 years the development of a wide range of medical devices has improved the quality of people's lives and revolutionized the prevention and treatment of disease, but it also has contributed to the high cost of health care. Issues that shape the invention of new medical devices and affect their introduction and use are explored in this volume. The authors examine the role of federal support, the decision-making process behind private funding, the need for reforms in regulation and product liability, the effects of the medical payment system, and other critical topics relevant to the development of new devices.

• Front Matter
• Part 1: Medical Device Innovation and Health Care
• New Medical Devices and Health Care
• Inventing Medical Devices: Five Inventors
• Technological Innovation and Medical Devices
• Part 2: Current Trends
• Federal Support of Medical Device Innovation
• Private Investment in Medical Device Innovation
• Product Liability and Medical Device Regulation: Proposal for Reform
• Impact of the Changing Medical Payment System on Technological Innovation and Utilization
• A Conflict: Medical Innovation, Access and Cost Containment
• Part 3: How Trends Will Interact
• How Trends Will Interact: The Perspective of the Hospital
• Perspectives of Industry, the Physician, and Government
• Summarizing Reflections
• Contributors
• Index