title: Technology assessment for countries in different stages of development.
abstract: Technology, in the form of tools, can lead to more effective and less hazardous diagnosis, monitoring and treatment. Criticisms of undue cost and of inhumanity reflect inappropriate use--when a technology is either unnecessary or is bound to be unsuccessful. Strategic objectives for managing technology include determining the limits of appropriate use in the particular country and the level of affordable provisions. Competition between patients for access to a technology should depend on the relative probability of benefit. Competition between technologies for provision should depend on the relative cost of a quality adjusted life year (QALY). Once data on technology assessment is available, steps should be taken to inform providers about appropriate macro-allocation, and clinicians about micro-allocation. There are imperatives to inappropriate use of technologies, especially those that marginally improve or extend the lives of the hopelessly ill. Ethics and economics demand a prior consensus by groups of doctors and others about limiting technological treatment in such circumstances. This should make it easier for individual clinicians to make wise decisions and to minimise inhumanity and waste of resources.
mesh_terms: D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003906:Developing Countries; D005060:Europe; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006285:Health Planning; D011788:Quality of Life; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013673:Technology Assessment, Biomedical; D014481:United States