Introduction

摘要

Social concerns about technology stimulated the development of technology assessment (TA) in the beginning of the 1960s. Technology assessment was described as 'a comprehensive form of policy research that examines short- and long-term social consequences of the application of technology' (Coates 1971). It requires ideas about the social context of the technology, and it is particularly concerned with unintended with unintended, indirect or delayed social impact. The aim of TA is to provide policy-makers with information on policy alternatives. In 1975, the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) established a health programme, which was the starting point of health technology assessment (HTA), as described in the foreword of this volume.