Technology Assessment—Impact on Medical Practice

Abstract

“Technology assessment” is still a relatively new concept, and its application to the field of medicine is even more recent. This results not only from an important effort to develop the scientific basis for health care, but also as a consequence of the growing concern about medical care costs (19). The term refers basically to the evaluation of the costs and effects of a medical technology. The most important methodological approach in this area has been, and still is, the traditional clinical trial, defined by Bradford Hill as “A carefully and ethically designed experiment with the aim of answering some precisely framed question,” including random allocation of the subjects in the trial (4).