Emerging medical technologies: balancing risks and benefits

Medical technology has advanced at an incredible pace during the last fifty years. Physicians and scientists have harvested the fruits of explosive growth in electronics and the material sciences by applying revolutionary advancements in these technologies to medical science. These developments have fed upon one another, creating an environment of synergy and rapid innovation. Unfortunately, the United States' premarket approval system for medical devices now threatens that environment; not just through bureaucratic red tape, but by fundamentally misbalancing the risks that underlie approving, or not approving, a new medical technology. The paper discusses the risks and benefits of medical technology innovation.