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May 14, 2009
The Economics of New Health Technologies Incentives, organization, and financing
Editors: Joan Costa-Font, Christophe Courbage, and Alistair McGuire
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 978-0-19-955068-5
List Price: #29.95
Publication Date: 14 May 2009
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 176
Bio
- Joan Costa-Font, Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer, Health and Social Care Department, London School of Economics, UK
- Christophe Courbage, Director of Research, The Geneva Association (International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics); Lecturer in Health Economics, Institute of Health Economics and Management, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
- Alistair McGuire, Professor of Health Economics and Health, Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics, UK
About the Book
Description:
- Contains a general health economics perspective, relevant to those in both health economics and policy
- Looks at the whole process of innovation, making it an important resource for practitioners in the public and private sectors
- Broader then simple economic evaluation, the book considers the behavioural aspects, organization, incentives, adoption and diffusion of new health technologies
- Hugely topical for modern healthcare, relevant to issues such as nano-technology, cloning, and tissue engineering
- Contributions from international experts including economists, health policy analysts, clinicians, and social scientists
Technological change in healthcare has led to huge improvements in health services and the health status of populations. It is also pinpointed as the main driver of healthcare expenditure. Although offering remarkable benefits, changes in technology are not free and often entail significant financial, as well as physical or social risks. These need to be balanced out in the setting of government regulations, insurance contracts, and individuals’ decisions to use and consume certain technologies. With this in mind, this book addresses the following important objectives: to provide a detailed analysis of what technological change is; to identify drivers of innovation in several healthcare areas; to present existing mechanisms and processes for ensuring and valuing efficiency and development in the use of medical technologies; and to analyse the impact of advances in medical technology on health, healthcare expenditure, and health insurance.
Each of the seventeen chapters summarizes an important issue concerning the innovation debate and contributes to a better understanding of the role innovation has both at the macro level and at the delivery (meso) and micro level in the healthcare sector. The effectiveness of innovation in improving people’s welfare depends on its diffusion and inception by the relevant agents in the health production process, and this book recognizes the multi-faceted contribution of policy makers, regulators, managers, technicians, consumers and patients to this technology change.
This book offers the first truly global economic analysis of healthcare technologies, taking the subject beyond simply economic evaluation, and exploring the behavioural aspects, organization and incentives for new technology developments, and the adoption and diffusion of these technologies.
Readership: The book will primarily appeal to health economists, policy makers, analysts and researchers, but is also of interest to those studying social science, management, innovation, or technology, and those working in the pharmaceutical industry.
