Opinion: New medical technology presents hospitals with a prisoner’s dilemma

In 2026, Medtronic plans to launch a new robot to compete with a legacy market leader. This new robot is reportedly cheaper both in startup and sustained costs. That’s a welcome direction for any new medical technology, but it ignores a problem that hospitals, especially rural ones, face relating to technology and physician training.

Sometimes, rational decisions made in isolation lead to irrational outcomes for everyone involved. This is the lesson of the prisoner’s dilemma, a classic game theory puzzle demonstrating how cooperation and self-interest often clash. In the puzzle, two prisoners are each offered a deal: Inform on the other and go free, or stay silent and face a lighter sentence together. Fearing betrayal, both inform and both lose.

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