Healthy Skepticism Library item: 8619

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Ramlogan R, Mina A, Tampubolon G, Metcalfe JS.
Networks of knowledge: The distributed nature of medical innovation
Scientometrics 2007 Feb; 70:(2):459-489
http://www.springerlink.com/content/9976173u0342033g/

Abstract:

Innovation in medicine is a complex process that unfolds unevenly in time and space. It is characterised by radical uncertainty and emerges from innovation systems that can hardly be comprehended within geographical, technological or institutional boundaries. These systems are instead highly distributed across countries, competences and organisations. This paper explores the nature, rate and direction of the growth and transformation of medical knowledge in two specific areas of research, interventional cardiology and glaucoma. We analyse two large datasets of bibliometric information extracted from ISI and adopt an empirical network approach to try to uncover the fine structure of the relevant micro-innovation systems and the mechanisms through which these evolve along trajectories of change shaped by the search for solutions to interdependent problems.