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Medical Testing and Health Insurance

Description: Tests to identify individuals who are likely to develop serious diseases are being rapidly developed. Some of these tests are directed at diseases for which there are presently no known therapies, thereby raising questions over the social consequences of identifying susceptible persons. This assessment examines existing and developing medical tests and their current and potential uses by health insurers and employers.
Date: August 1988
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
open access

Round Trip to Orbit: Human Spaceflight Alternatives

Description: This special report examines a wide range of potential improvements to the Space Shuttle, explores the future of space transportation for humans, and presents policy options for congressional consideration. It is one of a series of products from abroad assessment of space transportation technologies undertaken by OTA, requested by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.
Date: August 1989
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
open access

Ocean incineration: its role in managing hazardous waste

Description: This assessment of ocean incineration includes consideration of the adequacy of regulations; risks to human health and the marine environment relative to the risks of comparable activities; existing and emerging alternatives; the capabilities and limitations of ocean incineration in managing hazardous wastes; and how its use might affect efforts to develop superior waste treatment and reduction practices. Particular attention is addressed to areas of intense public concern over the use of this ā€¦ more
Date: August 1986
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
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Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Assessing the Risks

Description: This report describes what nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons can do, analyzes the consequences of their spread for the United States and the world, and summarizes technical aspects of monitoring and controlling their production. This report also explains the array of policy tools that can be used to combat proliferation, identifying tradeoffs and choices that confront policymakers.
Date: August 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
open access

U.S. Telecommunications Services in European Markets

Description: This report discusses on telecommunications entering European markets as not just a set of tradable services, but also a basic function of society, essential for effective governance social cohesion, and economic viabilityā€™ and equity.
Date: August 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
open access

Police Body Armor Standards and Testing, Vol. I

Description: This report discusses the standards for body-armor. The report describes the origin of the standard, the rationale for particular provisions, and the main points of controversy, which concern acceptable risks, the validity and discrimination of the test, and the reproducibility of results.
Date: August 1992
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
open access

Accessibility and Integrity of Networked Information Collections

Description: The paper begins with a survey of recent developments in networked information resources and tools to identify, navigate, and use such resources. The paper then discusses the changing legal framework that governs use of electronic information as contract law rather than simple sale within the context of copyright law becomes the dominant model for acquiring access to electronic information.
Date: August 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
open access

Cystic Fibrosis and DNA Tests: Implications of Carrier Screening

Description: This report concludes that the value of the cystic fibrosis (CF) carrier test is the information it provides. No one can estimate in common terms what it means to an individual to possess information about his or her genetic status, especially when the value concerns reproductive decision-making. As our knowledge of the human genome increases, what we do with information such as CF carrier status will depend on the perceptions and beliefs of all Americans.
Date: August 1992
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
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A New Technological Era for American Agriculture

Description: The report concludes that these technologies have the potential to provide new solutions to many agricultural problems. The challenge, however, will be whether government, industry, and the public can strike the proper balance of direction, oversight, and use to allow these technologies to flourish. Congress will be faced with many issues and choices as American agriculture moves into this new era.
Date: August 1992
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
open access

Special Care Units for People With Alzheimer's and Other Dementias: Consumer Education, Research, Regulatory, and Reimbursement Issues

Description: This report analyzes the available information about special care units for people with dementia. It discusses ways in which the Federal Government could encourage and support what is positive about special care units and at the same time protect vulnerable patients and their families from special care units that actually provide nothing special for their residents.
Date: August 1992
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
open access

Police Body Armor Standards and Testing, Vol. IIā€”Appendixes

Description: This report is an extension of volume one, that discusses the standards for body-armor. The report describes the origin of the standard, the rationale for particular provisions, and the main points of controversy, which concern acceptable risks, the validity and discrimination of the test, and the reproducibility of results.
Date: August 1992
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
open access

Artificial insemination: practice in the United States: summary of a 1987 survey

Description: This background paper presents the results of a study of physician and sperm bank practice of artificial insemination in the United States. It documents the number of women undergoing artificial insemination each year, the annual cost, medical and social screening criteria for women seeking artificial insemination and men who donate semen, the genealogical recordkeeping available to the resulting children, and physician attitudes toward possible changes in artificial insemination practice.
Date: August 1988
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
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Effectiveness and Costs of Osteoporosis Screening and Hormone Replacement Therapy, Vol. I: Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

Description: This paper assesses the medical benefits and costs of both screening and hormone replacement therapy. It is divided into two volumes. This volume presents the results of a model that estimates the cost per year of life gained from osteoporosis screening and hormone replacement therapy in postmenopausal women.
Date: August 1995
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
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Effectiveness and Costs of Osteoporosis Screening and Hormone Replacement Therapy, Vol. II: Evidence on Benefits, Risks, and Costs

Description: This paper assesses the medical benefits and costs of both screening and hormone replacement therapy. It is divided into two volumes. This volume provides the basis for the assumptions about the costs and effects of screening and hormonal replacement therapy used in the cost-effectiveness model.
Date: August 1995
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
open access

Coverage of Laser Technology by Health Insurers

Description: This paper presents some empirical information on how insurers consider payment for new medical devices. It describes the survey results of medical directors affiliated with private health insurers about their coverage decisions using, as examples, three applications of lasers: laser angioplasty for opening narrowed or blocked coronary arteries; laser discectomy for treating herniated intervertebral discs; and photodynamic therapy (using a lightā€“sensitive dye) for bladder cancer.
Date: August 1995
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
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Solar Power Satellites

Description: An assessment by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) that assesses the potential of the solar power satellite (SPS) as a source of energy, looking at four alternative SPS systems and at their "technical characteristics, long-term energy supply potential, international and military implications, environmental impacts, and institutional effects" (p. iii).
Date: August 1981
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
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Space stations and the law: selected legal issues

Description: This report suggests that Congress need not wait for the completion of the current governmental negotiations in order to begin an examination of the legal issues resulting from space station development and operation. In the near term, Congress could: 1) begin to identify those Federal and State laws which already apply to space station activities and those that Congress believes should apply; 2) begin to resolve questions of power sharing between Federal and State laws and Federal and State coā€¦ more
Date: August 1986
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
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Quality and Relevance of Research and Related Activities at the Gorges Memorial Laboratory

Description: A technical memorandum by the Office of Technical Assessment (OTA) that reviews the quality and relevance of activities at GML (Gorgas Memorial Laboratory), based on Gorgas' publishing record, an OTA-commissioned survey of GML's scientific reputation, a critical review of recent articles and current manuscripts, a comparison of GML's areas of effort with health problems in tropical America and with scientific opportunity, and a review of past scientific evaluations of GML (p. iii).
Date: August 1983
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
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The Impact of Randomized Clinical Trials on Health Policy and Medical Practice: Background Paper

Description: A background paper by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) that brings together "the literature and current views about the actual and potential role of RCTS (randomized clinical trials) in decisionmaking about medical technologies" (Preface).
Date: August 1983
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
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