Is high tech medicine worth the cost?

Here's a 3D reconstruction of a patient's descending aorta, celiac trunk and kidneys. On the hospital computers you can rotate this image around in space to view all its aspects, just like cars on the Toyota website. Awesome, honestly.

There are lots of ideas about why our health care is so costly, but I wager here's one that is not generally considered. American doctors and patients are infatuated with the latest and greatest in medical technology. We pride ourselves on being the world's leader in medical innovation. We readily choose treatments that are more aggressive and high risk because they may have a slightly better statistical outcome than a plain old boring traditional ones. The latest technology is always more expensive than opting for the tried and true. And most of the time it is better too.

But is it always worth it? Why pay for an expensive CT scan to diagnose appendicitis when a good physical exam and simple X-ray is just as good? Economically it makes no sense, but I guess the fancy, hi-res CT scan makes us - patients and doctors - all feel better about getting and giving the "best" service. Indeed, we pride ourselves on our technological leadership, but it comes at a steep price.