Debating Modern Medical Technologies

The Politics of Safety, Effectiveness, and Patient Access

Karen J. Maschke, Michael K. Gusmano

• Publisher: Praeger
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781440861895
• eBook ISBN: 9798216072393
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politica e relazioni internazionali
• Subtopic: Politica sanitaria

This book analyzes policy fights about what counts as good evidence of safety and effectiveness when it comes to new health care technologies in the United States and what political decisions mean for patients and doctors. Medical technologies often promise to extend and improve quality of life but come with many questions: Are they safe and effective? Are they worth the cost? When should they be allowed on the market, and when should Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance companies be required to pay for drugs, devices, and diagnostic tests? Using case studies of disputes about the value of mammography screening; genetic testing for disease risk; brain imaging technologies to detect biomarkers associated with Alzheimer's disease; cell-based therapies; and new, expensive drugs, Maschke and Gusmano illustrate how scientific disagreements about what counts as good evidence of safety and effectiveness are often swept up in partisan fights over health care reform and battles among insurance and health care companies, physicians, and patient advocates. Debating Modern Medical Technologies: The Politics of Safety, Effectiveness, and Patient Access reveals stakeholders' differing values and interests regarding patient choice, physician autonomy, risk assessment, government intervention in medicine and technology assessment, and scientific innovation as a driver of national and global economies. It will help readers to understand the nature and complexity of past and current policy disagreements and their effects on patients.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1 Evidence, Politics, and Medical Care Technology
• Chapter 2 Evolving Public- and Private-Payer Approaches to Evidence and Health Technology Assessment
• Chapter 3 Mammography Screening: Vested Interests and Polarization
• Chapter 4 When Medicare Said No for Amyloid PET Imaging
• Chapter 5 Placing a Value on Cure: Lessons from the New Generation of Hepatitis C Drugs
• Chapter 6 Avastin and the Politics of Accelerated Approval
• Chapter 7 The Path to the Clinic for Stem Cell and Other Regenerative Medicine Interventions
• Chapter 8 Conclusion: The 21st Century Cures Act and the Future of Health Technology Assessment
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author