Alex Tabarrok writes:

MelaFind is a handheld computer vision system, database and expert system that helps dermatologists to identify which skin lesions should be biopsied for melanoma. The device works quite well but the FDA has deemed the device “not approvable” because … it is not perfect today nor appropriate in all circumstances.

[I]nnovations get better over time. But if you impede the first generation the second generation may never come into existence and, as Mandel notes, no first-generation device could satisfy the FDA’s conditions. It’s like refusing to give the Wright Brothers a license to fly because their first airplane only flew for 59 seconds.

The signal that is being sent by the FDA impedes all medical innovation.

Read the whole post: How the FDA Impedes Innovation — Marginal Revolution.

(via FIRM)