Introduction

Evidence suggests that medical innovation is becoming increasingly dependent on interdisciplinary research and on the crossing of institutional boundaries.

Focus of the Volume

This volume focuses on the conditions governing the supply of new medical technologies and suggests that the boundaries between disciplines, institutions, and the private and public sectors have been redrawn and reshaped.

Contents of the Essays

Individual essays explore the nature, organization, and management of interdisciplinary R&D in medicine; the introduction into clinical practice of the laser, endoscopic innovations, cochlear implantation, cardiovascular imaging technologies, and synthetic insulin; the division of innovating labor in biotechnology; the government-industry-university interface; perspectives on industrial R&D management; and the growing intertwining of the public and proprietary in medical technology.