Cover: Identifying Potential Health Care Innovations for the Future Elderly

Identifying Potential Health Care Innovations for the Future Elderly

Published in: Health Affairs - Web Exclusive, Sep. 26, 2005, p. W5-R67-W5-R76

Posted on RAND.org on January 01, 2005

by Paul G. Shekelle, Eduardo Ortiz, Sydne J. Newberry, Michael W. Rich, Shannon Rhodes, Robert H. Brook, Dana P. Goldman

The authors used a method that combined literature review and expert judgment to assess potential medical innovations for older adults. They evaluated innovations in four domains: cardiovascular disease, cancer, the biology of aging, and neurologic disease. The innovations can be categorized by common themes: improved disease prevention, better detection of subclinical or early clinical disease, and treatments for established disease. The authors report the likelihood, potential impact, and potential cost implications for thirty-four innovations, and they revisit this forecast five years later. Many of the innovations have the potential to greatly affect the costs and outcomes of health care.

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