Technology in health care: the social impact and economic cost.

The contribution of technology to longevity and the quality of life has been substantial during the twentieth century. In the past two decades, technology employed in the care of hospitalized patients has been responsible for most of the cost by which the medical inflation rate (Medical Economic Index) exceeds the consumer price index. In most instances, the marginal benefit from the incremental cost is too small to be measured. If this viewpoint is correct, and if governments continue to contain medical costs, the future use of technology will be limited to those applications which have a clearly demonstrable marginal benefit associated with their incremental cost.