This is the second book in the series of books that we edit on the Management of Medical Technology (MMT) published by Kluwer Academic Publishers. The fIrst book Managing Technology in Health Care offered a broad-brushed view of the topics involved in the new and exciting area of MMT that we have launched. A group of distinguished scholars contributed to the fIrst book. While working on the first book in the series, and on a variety of articles in MMT, we began to realize that there is an urgent need for a comprehensive and highly focused book which will introduce and define the area of MMT....

Technology plays a critical role in the management of health care, the system, its delivery and its organizations. This book examines the role of technology in the delivery of health care by physicians and other health care workers, and their respective roles in the management of health care technology. The complexity of the health care environment and the difficulties in managing technology in general (and in health care in particular) makes this book a landmark exploration for the purpose of creating in-roads into the largely uncharted territory of health care technology. The chapters in...

My interest in X-Efficiency (XE) dates back to 1978. At the time, I was writing the dissertation for my Ph. D. at Washington State University. My dissertation was concerned with the role of attitudes in the school-to-work transition among young men. I was advised by Professor Millard Hastay (a member of my committee) to look at Leibenstein's "new" book, Beyond Economic Man. One of the things that caught my attention was his behavioral description of (selective) rationality. It seemed that Leibenstein' s behavioral description of a (selectively) rational individ ual was very similar to what...

Technology plays a critical role in the management of health care, the system, its delivery and its organizations. This book examines the role of technology in the delivery of health care by physicians and other health care workers, and their respective roles in the management of health care technology. The complexity of the health care environment and the difficulties in managing technology in general (and in health care in particular) makes this book a landmark exploration for the purpose of creating in-roads into the largely uncharted territory of health care technology. The chapters in...

The health care delivery system, its organizations, and its supporting industries are currently undergoing immense changes and at the center of this change is technology. This book is about the management of this technology. The authors refer to this new intellectual space as the Management of Medical Technology (MMT). From the core activities of delivering medical care, to the supporting industries producing technical systems, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, information technology, and finally to the insurers of health care - all of these demonstrate the central role technology plays in...