SUMMARY
New technologies, especially those based in robotics and artificial intelligence, have potential to vastly change how healthcare is delivered from managing patient information to diagnosis and prognosis to performing medical procedures. Such technologies are constantly being developed, trialed, and implemented and thus, many have yet to be investigated in terms of long-term costs and effects. Using robot-assisted prostatectomy as an example, this article explores how new technologies are often associated with high initial costs and positive short-term effects but their long-term cost-effectiveness remains unknown. This idea has important implications for widespread implementation of new technologies and for clinical decision making.