To assess the relative importance that cardiovascular specialists assign to new technologies.
A pilot survey of practising cardiologists in one tertiary hospital and cardiology trainees from two university programs. Respondents were asked to distribute a hypothetical budget among several new technologies.
A total of 28 responses (response rate of 62%) were analyzed. In the hypothetical situation described, doctors appeared willing to spend approximately equal amounts on implantable cardiac defibrillators (median 25%, interquartile range 5% to 30%) and bare metal coronary stents (median 28%, interquartile range 20% to 40%). Physicians were more restrained in their allocation for refinements of these two technologies, including drug-eluting stents and biventricular pacing. Wide individual variations in technology use were noted.
There is considerable uncertainty among cardiovascular specialists regarding the relative value of new technologies. Further work is required to better quantify this uncertainty and its determinants.
Notes
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