Economic Evaluation for Assistive Technology Policy Decisions

Economic evaluation analysis comprises a set of tools that are used to assess alternative health tech-nologies, including assistive technologies. Health technology assessment is a set of concepts that are used to evaluate technologies and to make policy recommendations. This article presents an exposi-tion of each of these areas: the tools that are used to conduct an economic evaluation, how these tools fit in to the larger policy-related analysis of health technology assessment, and how these tools can be used in the assistive technology field. Because these technologies are designed for persons with diverse disabilities, a multitude of low to high technology de-vices exist (Cook & Hussey, 2002). Developed for an extensive range of applications, ATs include medical devices; environ-mental and recreational aides; and vision, seating, and hearing tools (Georgia Department of Labor, Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, 2002). Despite the wide range of technologies that are available on the market, little hard evidence currently exists that is related to the success of AT systems in terms o