Healthcare is technological. Contemporary healthcare is provided through medical devices ranging from the bandage to the bioreactor, from the thermometer to cancer screening tests, from the MRI scanner to the new regenerative medicine. This book opens up the world of medical devices to examine the hidden pathways which shape how technology reaches the bedside. It brings to light a maze of the sciences of safety and efficacy, regulation, surveillance systems, politics, industry strategy, and roles of health professionals and patients. The author introduces new research in five different technologies of varying complexity, risk and usership: artificial hips; blood tests for prostate cancer; infusion pumps; the coagulometer; and tissue engineering. Drawing from the sociology of medicine and from science and technology studies, the book develops new concepts to understand the changing patterns of control and promotion of medical technology, and its meaning in society, to explore new meanings of medicalization and place evidence-based medicine in its policy context.