This thesis is about UK healthcare decision-makers’ responses to guidance that a new interventional procedure is safe and efficacious, and whether additional information would be helpful.  The aims were to conceptualise how evidence could be used to best inform decision-making; investigate the ways in which decision-makers currently respond to such guidance; identify types of additional useful information, and assess the feasibility and value of providing these. The study was based on the UK Interventional Procedures Programme (IPP).  A multidimensional framework for categorising evidence (explanatory vs. pragmatic) was developed and tested using IPP-evaluated procedures.  A qualitative study explored how local NHS decision-makers respond to IPP guidance and whether additional information might be useful to them.  A range of approaches – from simple descriptive data, through evidence syntheses, to economic models of cost-effectiveness – were explored in a case study of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) for snoring. NHS decision-makers’ responses to IPP guidance varied and they indicated additional information would be helpful.  Available evidence on the effects of procedures went beyond ‘efficacy’.  The case study showed it was possible, within limitations, to provide useful additional information but at increasing costs as complexity increased. Decision-makers vary in their responses to IPP guidance.  Additional information (such as prevalence, incidence, costs and likely cost-effectiveness), which they indicated would be useful, is potentially available but the feasibility of providing this varies depending on the nature of the evidence available and the related costs.  The thesis indicates that the quality of decision-making would be improved if guidance that a new procedure is safe and efficacious were to be contextualised through specific extra information.

Discourse ethics relates to an argumentative discussion about our moral norms and their foundations. The purpose of my research is to describe and evaluate the functioning of several institutions of discourse ethics as sources of normativity for the regulation of new medical technologies and to propose some possible interactions between law and these institutions. / The institutions of discourse ethics I will look at are: national commissions of experts, national ethics committees, technology assessment committees and consensus conferences. Used in these institutions, argumentative discussion has the capacity to influence the meaning we give to our moral norms as well as the context and the conditions for their application. These discussions generate a special kind of normativity, which ought to be recognised by our legal system. Law itself would benefit from an interaction with such normativity.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Tufts University, 1998. / Submitted to the Dept. of Economics. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Tufts University, 1998. / Submitted to the Dept. of Economics. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1959. / Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

[Truncated abstract] Technological innovation is considered the main contributor to economic growth. The systems of innovation framework aims to examine the causal pathways leading to technological innovation. However, most existing research under this framework, due to theoretical or methodological weaknesses, is unable to validate causal pathways or determinants of innovation. Institutions that guide human interaction within innovation systems are thought to be particularly important. The challenge has been to develop a taxonomy with which to conduct an empirical analysis of the impact of the institutional milieu on innovation. This thesis examines medical technological innovation within Australia and provides a basis from which such a taxonomy and other associated measures for systems of innovation have been developed. Medical industries are economically significant in developed countries and are amongst the most profitable worldwide. They use patents extensively to protect their innovations. In this context medical patents are an efficient means of examining the determinants of innovation. Few studies worldwide have explored the commercialisation process from patent to technological innovation and none has examined medical patents specifically. This thesis contains three empirical studies: - a description of Australian medical technology patented in the US between 1984-1999; - a survey of their inventors to examine the commercialisation process and identify the determinants of technological innovation; and - a case study of the commercialisation of an invention arising within an Australian university using qualitative methods. The first study is a population-based descriptive study of all US medical patents granted to Australian resident inventors between 1984 and 1999. During this period 7,835 US patents were granted to Australian resident inventors. Of these, 17% are identified as medical, and the proportion of medical patents rose from 10% to 25% of all Australian patents in the US from 1984 to 1999. The increase is largely due to Australian biotechnology patents, which increased from 10% to 55% of all medical patents during this period. Overall, medical patents are an increasingly significant proportion of Australia’s intellectual property portfolio. The second study is a survey of 402 first-named Australian inventors listed on the 602 medical patents granted in the US in 1984-1994. The aim is to assess their experience and success in commercialising their patented inventions. The correct address was found for 274 inventors of whom 177 (65%) were surveyed with no evidence of a significant response bias. This is the first known study surveying a nationally representative sample of medical inventors listed on patents

Thesis (Ph. D. in Interdisciplinary Studies: Management of Technology)--Vanderbilt University, May 2007. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Stan N. Finkelstein, Eric A. von Hipple, and Jeffrey R. Scott. / "January 1980." / Bibliography: p. 14.

The fragmented nature of modern health care provision makes it increasingly difficult to achieve continuity of care. This is equally true in the context of the South African healthcare landscape. This results in a strong emphasis on the informational dimension of continuity of care which highlights the importance of the continuity of medical records. Paper-based methods of record keeping are inadequate to support informational continuity of care which leads to an increased interest in electronic methods of record keeping through the adoption of various Health Information Technologies (HITs). This research project investigates the role that various HITs such as Personal Health Records (PHRs), Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), and Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) can play in improving informational continuity of care resulting in the development of a standards-based technological model for the South African healthcare sector. This technological model employs appropriate HITs to address the problem of informational continuity of care in the South African healthcare landscape The benefits that are possible through the adoption of the proposed technological model can only be realized if the proposed HITs are used in a meaningful manner once adopted and implemented. The Delphi method is employed to identify factors that need to be addressed to encourage the adoption and meaningful use of such HITs in the South African healthcare landscape. Lastly, guidelines are formulated to encourage the adoption and meaningful use of HITs in the South African healthcare landscape to improve the continuity of care. The guidelines address both the technological requirements on a high level, as well as the factors that need to be addressed to encourage the adoption and meaningful use of the technological components suggested. These guidelines will play a significant role in raising awareness of the factors that need to be addressed to create an environment conducive to the adoption and meaningful use of appropriate HITs in order to improve the continuity of care in the South African healthcare landscape.