Challenges for industry developers Authors Alicia Granados Abstract It is becoming increasingly clear that the current resource and development model is an unsustainable one. Health technology assessment (HTA), a multi-disciplinary field of policy analysis that examines the medical, economic, social, and ethical implications of medical technology in healthcare, is gaining importance in this context. By providing tools with which to scrutinise the value of innovation, it can inform decision-making in the healthcare system, at the clinical, research and development levels. Sustainability of the healthcare system is strongly related to social responsibility, and we have to work towards more effective public-private partnerships, and become more adept at integrating social, organisational and policy innovations in order to deliver the highest quality of healthcare that the system can afford.Keywords: personalised medicine ∙ health technology assessment (HTA) ∙ health industry pressures ∙ rare diseases ∙social responsability Downloads PDF Issue Vol. 8 No. 2 (2012) Section Bioethics and Social Responsabilities License This work is subject, unless the contrary is indicated in the text, the photographs or in other illustrations, to an Attribution —Non-Commercial— No Derivative Works 3.0 Creative Commons License, the full text of which can be consulted at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. You are free to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work provided that the author is credited and reuse of the material is restricted to non-commercial purposes only and that no derivative works are created from the original material.