OBJECTIVES: The diffusion of innovative technologies and specifically the difference between early and mainstream adopters during the product's life-cycle (also known as the chasm/saddle phenomena), has been studied empirically. It has been demonstrated that given a dual-market structure (e.g. early vs. mainstream adopters) cost has a substantially higher negative impact on mainstream adoption rate than on early adoption rate. Previous studies focused primarily on the consumer electronics industry.  We examined whether the phenomena of dual-markets exists also for medical technologies. METHODS: We analyzed the diffusion of innovation patterns of 11 medical interventions using a recent mathematical model: the Change of Dominance (CD) model, which analyzes the dynamics between the early and mainstream adopters. Previous research concluded that influences on adoption and subsequent diffusion rates are very different for various health categories, technologies, and geographies. Therefore, our empirical dataset covered three major medical intervention categories: interventional procedures (e.g. coronary stents), pharmaceuticals (e.g. beta-blockers), and diagnostic technologies (e.g. CT scans). The dataset was collected from five countries: United States, UK, Korea, Canada and New Zealand. RESULTS: The CD model has an excellent fit (>90%) to all of the technologies analyzed. Nine of the 11 technologies examined (82%) reached major market adoption. The median time of change of dominance for these nine technologies was seven years, very similar to that found for consumer electronics. The adoption rate at the time of CD is ~25%, which is higher than the rate in consumer electronics markets. The CD time of interventional technologies (e.g. coronary stents, bypass surgery) was substantially lower (3 vs. 8.5 years) compared to pharmaceuticals or diagnostic technologies. CONCLUSIONS: The dual market phenomenon seems to occur in the health care, with similar patterns to the consumer electronics industry. Both technology manufacturers and health planners should consider these findings when attempting to promote the use of innovative technologies.