The Economics of New Health Technologies: Incentives, organization, and financing

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. Contributors to this volume - Nick Bosanquet, Professor of Health Policy, Imperial College London, UK Davide Consoli, Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIoIR), Manchester Business School, Manchester, UK Joan Costa-Font, LSE Health, and European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK Roland Eisen , Department of Economics, University of Frankfurt, Germany Lauri Feldman, Undergraduate student, Columbia College, Chicago,USA Lilia Filipova, University of Augsburg, Germany Manuel Garcia-Goni, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain Marin Gemmill, LSE Health, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK Joshua Graff Zivin, Associate Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University, New York, USA Yasemin Ilgin, University of Frankfurt, Germany Adam Isen, Business and Public Policy, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, USA Michael Hoy, Department of Economics, University of Guelph, Canada Frank R. Lichtenberg, Columbia University and National Bureau of Economic Research, New York, USA Alistair McGuire, LSE Health, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK Andrew McMeekin, Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIoIR), Manchester Business School, Manchester, UK J. Stan Metcalfe, Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIoIR), Manchester Business School, and Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge, UK Andrea Mina, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge, UK Elias Mossialos, LSE Health, London School of Economics, London, UK Matthew Neidell, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University, New York, USA Adam Oliver, LSE Health, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK Nicola Pangher, Director, ITALTBS SpA, Italy Mark V. Pauly, Health Care Systems Department, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, USA Hristina Petkova, EGENIS, University of Exeter, UK Ronnie Ramlogan, Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIoIR), Manchester Business School, UK Joan Rovira, University of Barcelona, Spain Caroline Rudisill, LSE Health, London School of Economics, UK Victoria Serra-Sastre, LSE Health, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK Corinna Sorenson, LSE Health, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK Paul Windrum, MMUBS, Manchester, UK Peter Zweifel, University of Zurich, Switzerland