Technology assessment

Abstract: BACKGROUND: Decision-analytic models represent an explicit way to synthesise evidence currently available on the outcomes and costs of alternative (mutually exclusive) healthcare interventions. Usually their objective is to obtain a clear understanding of the relationship between incremental cost and effect in order to assess relative cost-effectiveness and to determine which interventions should be adopted given existing information. Given that the use of decision-analytic modelling for health technology assessment has increased exponentially in recent years, there is a need to consider how good practice in the field has been defined. Since the 1980s, several published guidelines have been available for those developing and evaluating decision-analytic models for health technology assessment. However, given the speed at which economic evaluation methodology has progressed, it is timely to review, critically appraise and consolidate those existing guidelines on the use of decision-analytic modelling in health technology assessment, and to identify key issues where guidance is lacking. OBJECTIVES: To identify existing guidelines and develop a synthesised guideline plus accompanying checklist. In addition to provide guidance on key theoretical, methodological and practical issues and consider the implications of this research for what might be expected of future decision-analytic models.

Abstract: Part 1: The Constructive Technology Assessment Discourse: Technology Assessment and Reflexive Social Learning: observations from the Risk Field, Bryan Wynne (Constructive) Technology Assessment: An Economic Perspective, Luc Soete. Part 2: Steering Technology is Difficult but Possible: The Danish Wind-Turbine Story: Technical Solutions to Political Visions?, Ulrik Jorgensen and Peter Karnoe Steering Technology Development Through Computer-Aided Design, Gary Lee Downey Risk Analysis and Rival Technical Trajectories: Consumer Safety in Bread and Butter, Fred Steward. Part 3: Experiments with Social Learning: Learning About Learning in the Development of Biotechnology, Jaap Jelsma User Representations: Practices, Methods and Sociology, Madeleine Akrich Technologies as Social Experiments. The Construction and Implementation of a High-Tech Waste Disposal Site, Ralf Herbold Pollution Prevention, Cleaner Technologies and Industry, Arne Remmen. Part 4: Constructive Technology Assessment - The Case of Medical Technologies: Why the Development Process Should Be Part of Medical Technology Assessment: Examples from the Development of Medical Ultrasound, Ellen B. Koch Social Criteria in the Commercialization of Human Reproductive Technology, Vivien Walsh Decision Structures and Technology Diffusion: Technical and Therapeutic Trajectories for Diabetes Care, Thea Weijers. Part 5: Analysis of Possibilities for Change: Technological Conception and Adoption Network: Lessons for the CTA Practitioner, Michel Callon Firm Strategies and Technical Choices, Rod Coombs. Epilogue: Managing Technology in Society: Toward Constructive Technology Assessment, Arie Rip, Thomas J. Misa and Johan Schot Index.

Abstract: During its first year of operation (1988) the Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care focused on nine areas. Additional activities will be added as need requires and resources permit. Also, preparations for 1989 projects have begun. The nine areas include: identification of technologies needing assessment, including international comparisons; review and synthesis of the value of preoperative routines; review and synthesis of the value of gastroscopy for diagnosing stomach pain; assessment of different treatment methods for back pain; assessment of the value of vascular surgery for vascular spasms in the legs; organization of a strategy conference concerning medical technology assessment in Sweden; creation of a strategy that addresses an international review of medical technology, future technologies in health care, waiting lists for medical care--the importance of medical technology, resource utilization and organizational and educational aspects of introducing new technology in health care, and costs and medical technology; translation of foreign assessment studies, with comments; national and international cooperation. SCTA has discussed the need for assessing specific technology such as bone marrow transplantation and surgical treatment of epilepsy. SCTA's Scientific Advisory Committee has additionally considered the following subjects for future projects: medical, social, and economic consequences of alternative technologies screening for prostate, colorectal, breast, and cervical cancer; costs, indications, and medical benefit of surgery for varicose vains; and modern urology technologies, particularly those related to prostate care.

Abstract: The central purpose of this paper is to outline an evolutionary theory of technology policy and to connect it with the emerging literature on national systems of innovation. Any understanding of technology policy must be based on a clear understanding of the nature of technology and the important differences between science and technology. Technology can be treated in terms of knowledge, skills, and artifacts and in each case there are different variety-generating mechanisms, different selection processes, and different institutional structures. For policy purposes, the degree of connection between these different dimensions of technology is at the core of technology policy. (c) 1995 Academic Press, Inc. Copyright 1995 by Oxford University Press.