Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 March 2009
The validity of technology assessment may depend largely upon who performs the job, and when they get involved. The options are many. Industry may hire a small private laboratory to perform animal trials on a completed device or drug; manufacturers may support their own in-house laboratories or even study beds; industry may contract with hospitals or private medical groups to evaluate a potential product. It is the thesis of this discussion that there is a different option which brings together the strengths of three often stubbornly independent institutions: industry, university-based investigators, and federal science granting agencies.