Health Affairs

Health Affairs, 28, no. 4 (2009): 986-995 doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.28.4.986 © 2009 by Project HOPE	New Online   Getting Health Reform Done   After the State of the Union   Incremental Reform   E-Health in Developing World   Most-Read Articles in 2009

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Tools & Technologies

Pathways Of Health Technology Diffusion: The United States And Low-Income Countries

A.K. Nandakumar, Joanne Beswick, Cindy Parks Thomas, Stanley S. Wallack and Daniel Kress

In the United States, the complex process of getting health care technologies into practice takes place in a competitive health system that is driven by technological innovation. Federal, state, and local governments’ roles in the diffusion process are limited. In low-income countries, where competitive markets are not as prominent, diffusing medical innovations requires an alternative understanding of how new technologies are adopted. This paper describes how, in low-income countries, the lack of functioning markets serves as a barrier to the transfer of necessary health technologies, and why governments must act as stewards in promoting technologies there.

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