Technology assessment is research that is intended to help decisionmakers deal with the development, acquisition and utilisation of healthcare technologies. Healthcare professionals now recognise the need for assessment information in decisionmaking. Among these professionals are biomedical and clinical engineers who need to manage technology assessment activities and use assessment information appropriately. It is imperative therefore that proper educational programmes be developed to prepare engineers for a broader role in healthcare. The paper elaborates on aspects of technology assessment and the need for training of engineers in specific concepts and principles.
Health economics is extensively used by reimbursement agencies to make decisions on whether to adopt new medical technologies. It is also used by the healthcare industry as an aid to decision making during product development. This paper proposes that academic healthcare technology transfer could also benefit from adopting health economics. The study investigated the knowledge and attitudes of academic staff involved in developing and transferring healthcare technologies. The participants had little or no prior knowledge of health economics; however, the majority reported that this method had the potential to aid development and commercialisation. The innovations developed by the workshop attendees and their commercialisation plans were of a type that could potentially benefit from cost-effectiveness calculations. Health economics has the potential to make valuable contribution to academic healthcare innovation. Research is required to develop this method further and ensure that it can be successfully applied in academia.
Berzelius failed to make use of Faraday's electrochemical laws in his laborious determination of equivalent weights.