Foreword
This paper presents a discussion of the issues, challenges and difficulties of assessing the place of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a high cost diagnostic imaging modality, in the context of Australian health care, with reference to the study coordinated by the former National Health Technology Advisory Panel (NHTAP). This material follows from a presentation to an AIH workshop in health economics, held in 1988 and subsequent developments in the NHTAP assessment.