Medical Innovation: How Can We Get the Right Technology at the Right Price?

Innovation is the engine that drives improvement in quality of health care, but also the unsustainable growth in expenditures. Industry creates a remarkable pipeline of new drugs, devices and diagnostics, but critics contend that these are too often used on the wrong patient, at the wrong time or at the wrong price. In his new book, Purchasing Medical Innovation, Professor Robinson analyzes the roles of the Food and Drug Administration, Medicare and private insurers, physicians and hospitals and consumers themselves as purchasers of effective but expensive technologies. John Hernandez describes the challenges and opportunities for technology firms facing increasing demands for affordable breakthrough innovations.

Speakers: James C. Robinson, UC Berkeley; John Hernandez, Abbott Vascular