“That’s a bad trade-off. We have to stop spending money foolishly so that we can afford treatments that are significantly beneficial for the population,” says Richard A. Deyo, M.D., M.P.H., a professor of medicine and of health services at the University of Washington, Seattle. His colleague, Donald L. Patrick, Ph.D., M.S.P.H., professor of health services and sociology at the University of Washington, agrees: “We have to address the social and cultural forces that lead to a techno-consumptive culture.”

With support from a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research, Deyo and Patrick have co-authored a new book, Hope or Hype: The Obsession with Medical Advances and the High Cost of False Promises, that squarely addresses the tough issues surrounding new and evolving health care technologies.

According to Deyo and Patrick, there is no easy cure for the American obsession with medical miracles: After all, hope cuts to the root of the American dream. “There are numerous examples of older, lower-cost technology being as good as the new, but the hope that something new will be better and the hype surrounding it gets us to buy the latest and the greatest,” Patrick says.