The introduction of innovative technology into practice

Stories of clinical innovation in medicine are generally stories of fits and starts, of irrational exuberance and of avoidable tragedy, of skill, luck, science, and serendipity. Such stories are often transformed, in retrospect, into orderly, semi-fictional narratives that show science as a rational process. These narratives portray medical progress as the result of carefully designed experiments that test specific hypotheses. The results of such experiments, so the story goes, are then incorporated into clinical practice. The real history of innovation is both more fun and more frightening than such myths might suggest.