title: Uncertain prognosis for high-quality diagnostics: clinical challenges, economic barriers and needed reforms.
abstract: Quality healthcare, as measured by outcomes and costs, needs high-quality diagnostics whose use governs the evidence-based flow of patients from screening to treatment to outcomes monitoring. The current patent, regulatory and reimbursement environment may be inadequate to spur their development, thereby placing in jeopardy the goals of healthcare reform and the aspirations of personalized medicine. Policy actions to ensure consistent quality standards and to increase development incentives through research support, reimbursement reform, increased intellectual property protection and market-making activities may be required to obtain the well-characterized, clinically proven diagnostics that US healthcare requires.
authors: MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, USA. trusheim@mit.edu
authors: Mark R
authors: MR
authors: Trusheim
authors: M J Finley
authors: MJ
authors: Austin
authors: Carsten
authors: C
authors: Rausch
authors: Ernst R
authors: ER
authors: Berndt
mesh_terms: D003933:Diagnosis; D055808:Drug Discovery; D017048:Health Care Costs; D018166:Health Care Reform; D006801:Humans; D057089:Pathology, Molecular; D057285:Precision Medicine; D011379:Prognosis; D011787:Quality of Health Care