In Medicine Worth Paying For, the editors...begin by asking 'How is medicine doing?' Many of the 14 case studies included suggest a qualified positive assessment... This book is far more than a round of applause for medical advances that have been proven to yield health benefits. The editors criticize the methods by which medical interventions are studied, or, not studied... The editors...[have] distinguished backgrounds in technology assessment...[and] the text itself is highly readable, and sufficiently accessible so that lay readers will find it readily comprehensible. -- Thomas H. Lee * Nature Medicine * [T]his book would be valuable for many audiences, especially for policymakers, because it identifies most of the serious deficiencies in the American health care delivery system and suggests remedial steps that are endorsed by virtually all serious scholars of the problems this nation faces on the scientific side of health care. Health professionals and medical and nursing students, as well as lay readers, should find this book very informative in helping them to understand the issues in present-day health care delivery in the United States. -- Seymour Perry, M.D. * Academic Medicine * This book is grounded in solid reviews of clinical studies, shows awareness of the economic consequences of alternative interventions, and is sensitive to the social and psychological factors that affect the well being of patients. It deserves a wide audience among physicians, other health professionals, and all those responsible for public and private health policy decisions. -- Victor R. Fuchs, Henry J. Kaiser, Jr., Professor, Emeritus, Stanford University This book is must reading for anyone interested in the role of new technologies in medicine. Two eminent scholars, Professors Frazier and Mosteller, and their colleagues discuss examples of specific new technologies-how they are evaluated, how they are accepted in the market place, and how their impact on the cost and the quality of medical care is evaluated. As the United States and most Western nations struggle with the challenges of containing the rise in the costs of care, while preserving and enhancing the quality of care, the lessons taught in this book will be instructive and sometimes sobering. -- Anthony L. Komaroff, M.D., Director, Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston