Consensus conferences are an increasingly accepted means of synthesising available information and of producing a widely agreed view of the value of medical techniques and advances. In the United Kingdom the King's Fund initiated their use, and developed them beyond their original purely professional focus by holding meetings in public, ...
Medical technology, defined broadly to include drugs, procedures and equipment used singly or in combination, has been of enormous benefit in improving the quality of health care. It has, however, raised many issues about how society can afford to pay for these often expensive developments and about associated ethical problems ...
This report presents the results of the authors' review of experience of health care technology assessment in the UK and overseas. It was prepared principally to inform the programme of work on technology assessment being developed at the King's Fund Institute, and was a benchmark exercise, seekingto establish the state ...
The first UK consensus development conference, on coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG), was held between 21-23 November 1984. A panel of twelve listened to evidence from experts and from the conference participants. Four questions were addressed: 1) What are the pros and cons of CABG for various types of patient, ...