ABSTRACT
The advancing sophistication of American medical technologies has played an important role in the changing face of medicine. Technologies have permitted us to greatly improve our ability to diagnose and treat many diseases. At the same time most technologies have contributed to the rapidly increasing costs of care. Lastly, technologies by their very nature have placed an unfortunate but increasingly wide emotional moat between the physician and his or her patient. Thus, doctors are viewed as colder or less caring then in times past. This chapter discusses what might be done to more effectively harness and deploy the powerful new medical technologies while improving health outcomes? For that, it looks at a few areas where changes in the way of doing things might make medical care more effective and less costly.
