The purpose of this report is to provide OTA with specific information that can be used in forming general conclusions regarding broader policy issues. The first 19 cases in the Health Technology Case Study Series, for example, were conducted in conjunction with OTA’s overall project on The Implications of Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Medical Technology. By examining the 19 cases as a group and looking for common problems or strengths in the techniques of cost-effectiveness or cost-benefit analysis, OTA was able to better analyze the potential contribution that those techniques might make to the management of medical technology and health care costs and quality.

This report discusses briefly several distinctions were important for the review of the suitability of data from consumer as indicators of quality of care.

This report describes the expanding role of professional standards and peer review activities in health-care quality assessment initiatives. It also describes how some traditional and some new quality assessment activities that involve professional and peer review are either building on or in conflict with existing legal processes and public policy.

This report provides a look at the history of educational technology, including both successful and unsuccessful government and private enterprise projects during the past three decades. The report examines trends in technological factors and new technologies that will influence development of innovative educational hardware and software during the next five years.

This report starts out with historical development of independent depositories. It then discusses general requirements for deposits of microorganisms, plants and animals as they relate to the application for a patent and the role of independent depository in facilitating provisions of patent law governing specifications of the a patent applications.