CHP/PCOR core faculty member Jay Bhattacharya presented his work on medical technology costs at the Hong Kong Hospital Authority 2006 Convention, held May 8 and 9 in Hong Hong. The event is one of the largest healthcare conferences in the Asia-Pacific region.

Bhattacharya explained that while growing elderly populations in the U.S., Hong Kong and other countries do put a strain on those countries' healthcare resources, advances in and the diffusion of medical technology are a much bigger contributor to rising healthcare costs. In the United States, he said, new medical technologies are likely to substantially drive up total healthcare expenditures over the next 25 years. Bhattacharya's presentation was referenced in a May 9 news article in The Standard, a Chinese business newspaper.

The Hong Kong Hospital Authority Annual Convention draws more than 2,000 attendees each year, including public health officials, clinicians, researchers, health system executives and policymakers. As Hong Kong's government recently convened a "Health and Medical Development Advisory Committee" to deliberate on what is the best healthcare model for Hong Kong and how it can be financed in a sustainable way, this year's convention placed significant emphasis on examining different types of healthcare financing models.