Knowledge base in medical technologies. Towards a technology map and the position of the sector technology leaders

ROBERT, VERÓNICA; VÁZQUEZ, DARÍO; CRETINI, IGNACIO

Conferencia; GLOBELICS; 2021

The global Covid-19 pandemic brings into the debate the relevance of the health sector as a vector for industrial and economic development. The medical equipment and supplies sub-sector has received special attention, since rapid technological changes are getting more complex its knowledge base (KB), in which new electronic devices and software industries are converging with its tradicional KB based on manufacturing, mechanical and electronic equipment. Those changes are raising barriers for late-comers countries (even in those cases with competencies in manufacture) and affecting the possibilities of catching-up.Following this line of research, the main goal of this paper is to describe the knowledge base of the medical equipment and supplies sub-sector at global level, to analyze its recent evolution and to characterize countries' profiles in terms of competences in that knowledge base. For that purpose, we depart from a micro database (extracted from Crunchbase) composed of different data corresponding to 7,660 companies related to medical equipment and supplies. Based on this information obtained from CB, we built bimodal and unimodal networks considering companies belonging to the sector and those companies belonging to other sectors but acquired by medical equipment companies. Among the main results, we found manufacturing capabilities as essential to move into the more complex and dynamic segments of the sector, where leading countries have an advantage. However, the growth of ICTs, in particular those linked to artificial intelligence, as well as technological convergence trajectories with the biotechnology field (generally mediated by the mastery of engineering skills linked to manufacturing production) show the most promise for the future.