Assessment of Medical Technologies: Methods and Challenges

The present situation of the healthcare systems worldwide strongly calls for a change in the care delivery paradigm and requires to focus more on the long-term outcomes and on what is of real value for patients and the community. This approach can be summarized with the value-based healthcare concept, which can be greatly sustained by the technology innovation. The chapter focuses on the assessment of medical technologies, with special attention to medical devices, and on different methods and problems connected with this evaluation. Special emphasis is given to the different methods (e.g. health technology assessment, cost-utility analyses, and others), and to investment/divestment decisions. The issues of the social return of the investment in healthcare and of the legitimacy of the decisions taken are also considered. The discussion is then completed with the presentation of the emerging topics about the assessment of medical technologies.