Medical technology horizon scanning.

Horizon scanning is becoming particularly important in the medical industry, in the identification and evaluation of emerging technologies. This paper examines the role biomedical engineers may have in horizon scanning new medical technologies and considers whether this is a useful activity for biomedical engineers. A horizon scanning methodology for conducting studies of emerging medical technologies is introduced, consisting of the three main phases of (a) a systematic literature review, in which a set approach is taken to the gathering of information; (b) scanning for publications across a range of different sources; and (c) consideration of the literature in relation to fixed benchmarks to indicate the quality of published information and reported achievements. This methodology has been successfully applied by the authors in a horizon scanning study for the purpose of advising a Government agency on the status of remote patient monitoring technology.