New health technologies: how can we evaluate them?

The single biggest cost-driver for the health care system is new health technolgies: new diagnostic and treatment tools including pharmaceuticals. Will these new technologies truly improve patient care? Are they cost-effective? How can we evaluate this? These are challenging questions for health care providers and managers.

Dr. Maurice McGregor (BIO) is president of the Technology Assessment Unit of the MUHC. He is a pioneer and a champion of health technology assessment (HTA) as a systematic approach to evaluating new technologies and reaching evidence-based conclusions about their use. The following four talks provide an overview of this still novel approach.

	1: What is health technology assessment? (mp3)
	2: How did HTA develop? (mp3)
	3: Can HTA help health care systems contain rising health costs? (mp3)
	4: The MUHC experience: Is HTA helpful in the hospital setting? (mp3)