ECONOMIC IMPACT OF MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

The Institute for Health Technology St udies (InHealth) has issued a request for proposals to generate original, independent research examining the overall economic impact of medical technology.

Three, one-year grants totaling $750,000 will be awarded to investigators.

InHealth, a Washington, D.C.- based non-profit research and educational organization, seeks to fund studies that address questions about the value that society receives from its spending on medical technology and how that value may be accounted for in calculations of rising healthcare costs, medical technology assessments, and other complex economic analyses.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, about one half of all growth in healthcare spending in the last several decades was associated with changes in medical care made possible by advances in technology.

Although information exists about the costs of specific technologies, there is less data about the value added by medical technology, such as reducing healthcare costs through shorter lengths of stay, fewer disabilities, and increasing economic productivity and GDP.

To date, InHealth has funded research focused on the impact of various diagnostics and medical devices on mortality, morbidity, disability and cost, as well as on ability to work, dependence on or independence from supportive care, and quality of life.

Analyses have covered implantable defibrillators, drug-eluting stents, total knee and hip arthroscopies, MR and CT scans, in-vitro diagnostics, diabetes monitors, and "cooling caps" in neonatal care, among others.

RFPs are due to InHealth by April 15, 2009. For more information, please visit inhealth.org.