Health technology involves all the medical practices and technologies developed to promote health. Such technologies may include surgery, x-ray, mammography, blood transfusions, antiviral drugs, and genetic engineering. It also includes other technologies used in the field of diagnosing, treating, preventing, and improving the health of patients. A large number of diseases and ailments have been treated using technologies such as diagnostic testing, drug development and drug delivery. The goal of all these technologies is to make human life healthy and enhance its quality so that society can live in a healthy environment.
A Guide to Health Technology (HCTV) can be useful for professionals who are looking for a scientific platform to understand the changing trends and practices in the health technology domain. It gives a concise yet comprehensive overview of what all the emerging technologies are and how they are affecting clinical practice. The HCTV comprises twelve important topics as Surveillance, Technology Transfer & Clinical Trials, Population Health Management, Technological Issues in Clinical Trials, Electronic Health Records and Clinical Trials Process Improvement, Funding Science, Decision Sciences in Health Technology, and Medical Products Development. All these topics are discussed in detail in the fourteen chapters that are written in a very lucid manner. The Guide to Health Technology offers important information on the history of science and developments in the field of health science, the scope of emerging technologies in the modern world, current practice and latest trends. The book contains detailed information on the topics like electronic health records (EHR), clinical trials, population management, clinical logistics management and also the economic implications of such practices.
The Guide to Health Technology Assessment is meant for professionals who need to perform health technologies assessment. Such professionals can be nurses, medical practitioners, pharmacists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, hospital administrators and various others. The book aims at making the job of health technologists simpler and more effective in terms of payers and stakeholders. The assessment framework consists of four different parts namely, the subject area, the technology, the reimbursement systems and the clinical governance. Each of these four parts is addressed in detail and with practical explanations.
This is a valuable tool for employers who have to determine the cost-effectiveness of introducing new healthcare services. It also has great value for the governments as it helps them to know the impact of the introduction of new healthcare technology and assess its impact on their budget. The book contains twelve chapters and a further two sub-chapters on training and professional development. The first chapter of the book looks at the need for developing a comprehensive value assessment package for the introduction of new health technologies in the healthcare sector. The second chapter looks at developing an advisory panel to address the key issues surrounding the introduction of new technologies in the field of health technologies.
The author rightly points out that even today many private payers do not want to take up the risk of introducing new healthcare technologies to them as they are afraid that they may fail to deliver the promised service or may incur heavy expenditure. But that is where the advisory panel comes into the picture as it would help these companies as well as other private payers to get advice as to how the introduction of new technology would affect them and if it would meet their requirements and whether they would be willing to take up the risk. Thus, this book is a very good source of information for employers and other private payers to decide whether they would be willing to take up the risk associated with introducing new health technologies into their respective healthcare systems.
The author has looked into all the issues surrounding the introduction of new health technologies and has come out with a very useful guide coverage on six aspects which are pricing, reimbursement, service design, reimbursement decisions, technology adoption and risk management. The pricing issues are covered extensively in the guide coverage and the author rightly claims that the Health Technology Assessment is one of the most important aspects of setting up a healthcare system. At the same time, there is a demand for this kind of assessment especially in the private health sectors as many private payers do not want to take up the risk of introducing new technologies into their system without a proper assessment being done by an independent agency. The reimbursement issue is also dealt with comprehensively in this book as there are several issues on which the new technology should be analyzed and the author rightly claims that this book serves all interested parties well. On the other hand, risk management is a very important aspect of any healthcare system and thus the author rightly claims that this book contains all the information on risk management which is required by any type of healthcare system.
