Ah, turns out the article is
http://healthaff.highwire.org/cgi/reprint/20/5/30". The survey was set up by proposing 30 med. innovations and having the internists choose the top ten already listed above.
1. ___ ACE inhibitors and angiotensin II antagonists
2. ___ Balloon angioplasty with stents
3. ___ Bone densitometry
4. ___ Bone marrow transplant
5. ___ CABG
6. ___ Calcium channel blockers
7. ___ Cataract extraction and lens implant
8. ___ Fluoroquinolones
9. ___ Gastrointestinal endoscopy
10. ___ H. Pylori testing and treatment
11. ___ Hip and knee replacement
12. ___ HIV testing and treatment
13. ___ Inhaled steroids for asthma
14. ___ IV-conscious sedation
15. ___ Laparoscopic surgery
16. ___ Long-acting and parenteral opioids
17. ___ Mammography
18. ___ MRI and CT scanning
19. ___ Nonsedating antihistamines
20. ___ NSAIDs and Cox-2 inhibitors
21. ___ Proton pump inhibitors and H2 blockers
22. ___ PSA testing
23. ___ SSRIs & recent non-SSRI antidepressants
24. ___ Recent hypoglycemic agents, e.g. metformin
25. ___ Cardiac enzymes, e.g. CPK, troponin
26. ___ Sildenafil
27. ___ Statins
28. ___ Tamoxifen
29. ___ Third-generation cephalosporins
30. ___ Ultrasonography incl. echocardiography
Edit: Criterion for the thirty:
The innovations were chosen by an electronic search of the Journal of the
American Medical Association and the New England Journal ofMedicine for
the past twenty-five years, based on the frequency with which the
innovations were the principal focus of published articles. An adjustment
was made to include more recent innovations that could
have been the subject of articles for only a few years. We modified
and supplemented the resulting list according to our judgment concerning
the clinical and economic importance of particular innovations.
We do not claim that the thirty innovations chosen for the
survey are unambiguously the most important ones of the past
thirty years;
just as CABG surgery isn't innovative anymore, it only was when it was presented the first time and then put to use. An innovation is only innovative when it innovates its field for the first and thereby the last time.