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

by Joan Costa-Font, Christophe Courbage, Alistair McGuire

Overview

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 individual's 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 analyze 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.

This book offers the first truly global economic analysis of healthcare technologies, taking the subject beyond simply economic evaluation and exploring the behavioral aspects, organization and incentives for new technology developments, and the adoption and diffusion of these technologies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199550685
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/28/2009
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Dr Joan Costa-Font teaches political economy and European social policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and has previously taught Economics at the University of Barcelona. Dr Costa-Font is a fellow of CESifo (Munich), the health econometrics and data group (York), FEDEA (Madrid) , IESE Business School and CAEPS (Barcelona). He has received various awards, including the Bayer Health Economics Award in 2003, the Edad &Vida Research award in 2006 and the Rogeli Duacastella Award on Social Science granted by the Foundation "La Caixa" in 2008. He has acted as an economic and research consultant for the Word Bank, the European Commission, the Spanish Ministry of Health and the Catalan Ministry of Trade as well as for private organisations. Christophe Courbage, PhD in Economics, is Director of the Health and Ageing and Insurance Economics research programmes at the Geneva Association. He lectures in Health Economics at the University of Lausanne, and "International Faculty" at the Singapore College of Insurance. Dr Courbage is also Deputy Editor of The Geneva Papers and Executive Secretary of the European Group of Risk and Insurance Economists (EGRIE). Dr Courbage was awarded the 1999 Ernst Meyer Prize by the Geneva Association for the best PhD thesis in Insurance Economics, is Deputy Editor of The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, and is Executive Secretary of the European Group of Risk and Insurance Economists (EGRIE). Professor Alistair McGuire [BA (Econ); MLitt (Econ); PhD (Econ)] is a Professor in Health Economics at LSE Health and Social Care. He has been professor of Economic at City University and thought at Oxford and Aberdeen. Professor McGuire has written numerous books, articles and reports in this area. He has also acted as an advisor to numerous UK government offices and research councils (including the ESRC and the MRC), as well as an economic consultant to a number of foreign governments, and domestic and foreign corporations and pharmaceutical companies. His current interests are in economic evaluation (especially when conducted alongside clinical trials), the economics of the hospital, technological diffusion, and health care insurance.

Table of Contents

Part I. Introduction1. What do we know about the role of health care technology in driving healthcare expenditure growth?, Alistair McGuire & Victoria SerraPart II. Innovation, diffusion and technology change2. The process of innovation: incentives, behaviour and organization, Davide Consoli, Andrew McMeekin, J. Stan Metcalfe, Andrea Mina & Ronnie Ramlogan3. Technology - scientific force or power force?, Nick Bosanquet4. Diffusion of health technologies: evidence from the pharmaceutical sector, Victoria Serra-Sastre & Alistair McGuirePart III. Technological change and health insurance5. Insurance and new health technology, Mark Pauly & Adam Isen6. Technological change and health insurance, Peter Zweifel7. Health insurance and the uptake of new drugs in the United States, Marin Gemmill, Victoria Serra & Joan Costa-Font8. Genetic advances and health insurance, Lilia Filipova & Michael HoyPart IV. Innovation, social demand and valuation9. Ageing and pharmaceutical innovation, Roland Eisen & Yasemin Ilgin10. New approaches to healthcare innovation: information for chronic patients, Manuel García-Goñi & Paul Windrum11. The convergence of nano-, bio- and information technologies in healthcare, Nicola Pangher12. Treatment uncertainty and irreversibility in medical care: implications for cost-effectiveness analysis, Joshua Graff Zivin, Matthew Neidell, & Lauri Feldman13. The limits and challenges to the economic evaluation of health technologies, Adam Oliver & Corinna SorensonPart V. Incentives, mechanisms and processes14. Intellectual property rights and pharmaceuticals development, Joan Rovira15. Home, or nursing home? The effect of medical innovation on the demand for long-term care, Frank R. Lichtenberg16. Demand for health information on the internet, Joan Costa-Font, Caroline Rudisill & Elias Mossialos17. Institutional pathways for integrating genetic testing into mainstream healthcare, Hristina Petkova

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Carole A. Kenner, PhD, RN, FAAN, FNAP, ANEF (The College of New Jersey)
Description: This book describes technology innovation in healthcare.
Purpose: The purpose is to analyze different aspects of technology innovation and the evidence to support such changes. The objectives are to define technology change in health care; determine the drivers of innovation; discuss the use of medical technologies; and analyze the impact on health and healthcare costs.
Audience: The audience includes anyone working in healthcare or interested from a policy or economic standpoint as well anyone in the medical device or pharmaceutical industry.
Features: The book moves from a description of healthcare technology, through innovation and diffusion. This is followed by discussions of technology and health insurance including new drugs and genetic breakthroughs. The last two sections address the need for economic evaluation of technology innovations and discuss what incentives are in place to support these changes. This last section is probably the most important and least discussed in other books.
Assessment: There are several books on emerging technologies such as Emerging Technologies as a Basis for Healthcare Innovation, Klink et al. (Jossey-Bass, 2000)). But most do not go into any depth about the economic perspectives or incentives for change. This book, on the other hand, takes into account the needs of an aging society and the impact this shift is having on many medical device and pharmaceutical agencies. This is a good addition to the literature on healthcare reform and the use of technology.

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