Interoperability: the cure for what ails us [Government Affairs]

While working in the area of pacemakers almost three decades ago, I recall discussing the artificial heart with some fellow biomedical engineers. At first the discussion was strictly devoted to the physiological, mechano-electrical, and systems levels. Slowly, however, the technical discussion moved into the matter of economics and the cost-effectiveness of the device as it related to the entire process. At a point in that debate, it became clear that there was a chasm between the wonderful opportunities that such devices could offer with respect to saving or prolonging someone’s life and the stark economic realities as related to affordability, no matter where in the world a patient lived. Part of this discussion dealt with the fact that for the price of a single artificial heart, 100 people could have a pacemaker implanted or replaced.