IfW Press Release October 13, 2006

New Technology and Medical Decision Making:
A Novelle Perspective

A novel perspective on the evaluation and implementation of new medical tech­nology, investments into the global medical information infrastructure and the expected revolution in medical care delivery and productivity has been developed by a unique interdisciplinary research conference with more than 80 participants from 18 countries – among them many of the world leading scholars in the field – at Salzau Castle in Germany. From October 4–9, 2006, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and the European Science Foundation – with financial support from the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung für Wissenschaftsförderung and the State Government of Schleswig-Holstein’s Gesundheitsinitiative – joined forces to host the inaugural event in a new series of international research conferences on the global health economy.

Rapid advances in medical knowledge and technology have long been recognized as a key challenge to the theory and practice of medical decision making, but re­searchers throughout continental Europe are only now beginning to address and discuss the implications of these advances for the international agenda of health policy and health system reform.

The conference discussed a range of organizational implications of new medical technologies – both for health care providers and for the design of national health systems. Several speakers made concrete proposals to improve investment decisions, based on the timely evidence of a technology’s efficacy and cost-effectiveness, to refine the methodology and application of health technology assessments, and to further develop the institutions that govern health care practice and determine how quickly new information diffuses, how careful it is evaluated, filtered and targeted at those most likely to benefit from it, and how the risks associated with the adoption of new technology are allocated. Shared investment decisions, the acceleration of information diffusion and better risk management remain major tasks for future research in which the conference organizers seek to involve medicine, economics and related fields.

Detailed information on this agenda-setting conference, including downloadable presentations and invited papers, is available on the Kiel Institute’s conference website or via the conference website that is maintained by the European Science Foundation at www.esf.org/conferences/sc06219.

For more information and interview inquiries, interested journalists may directly con­tact one of the two conference chairs, Uwe Siebert at public-health@umit.at (+43-50-8648 3930) or Peter Zweifel at pzweifel@soi.unizh.ch (+41-1-634 2270).

For inquiries about the future strategy of the conference series, please contact Dr. Michael Stolpe, the Coordinator of the Kiel Institute’s Global Health Research Network, at  or by phone at +49-431-8814 246.