The Innovation Life Cycle in Health and Medicine and the Challenge of Equity

Any consideration of how the innovation system can be better aligned with equity must begin with an understanding of how technologies in health and medicine develop. This chapter provides an overview of the U.S. system for biomedical science and technology development, using a simplified conceptual model of innovation processes as they take place over time and with the contributions of multiple parties. While no single path of innovation exists, and different technologies follow variable paths of development, this generalized model can assist in identifying how and where inequities arise and how and where technological innovations in health and medicine can be better aligned with equity.