Technology seduction: lost opportunities in child health?

Abstract

This report examines the extent to which illness-based individual care and expensive, often unevaluated, technologies in paediatrics have seduced practitioners away from more cost-effective, population-based child health activities and examples of new and unevaluated technologies in perinatology and paediatrics are given. The way in which these technologies are introduced and taken up, by 'creeping incrementalism', is described and a plea is made to implement only those aspects of paediatric care that have been demonstrated to be effective. This would result in only appropriate technologies being used, avoid harm being done to children and ensure that money is available for other effective p..