The statement was reaffirmed by the IEEE-USA Board of Directors in February 1998, upon recommendation of its Medical Technology Policy Committee. The past few decades have brought dramatic progress in technological innovation and its application to medical research, diagnosis and therapy. This progress, resulting from the combined efforts of physicians, engineers and applied physical and life scientists, has led to significant improvements in the delivery of health care and enhancement in the quality of life. The NIH has primarily supported the use of engineering in the first of these roles and to a lesser extent in the others. Escalating health care costs are a national concern.
Technology has no intrinsic effect on health care costs.
Some technological innovations provide new diagnostic or treatment modalities that were previously unavailable and can result in new expenditures. With cost containment as a guiding principle, the NIH can stimulate support for research that would employ technology specifically to reduce health care costs, while maintaining the quality and increasing the availability of medical care. The United States has traditionally been the world leader in medical innovation and the application of technology to medicine. This leadership position in medical technology has recently begun to decline, particularly in technology-intensive areas. Important recent innovations, which have largely been developed abroad, include MRI, CT scanners, materials for orthopedic and dental implants, and the lithotripter.