Knowledge, Understanding and the Dynamics of Medical Innovation

Ronald Ramlogan and Davide Consoli

European Journal of Economic and Social Systems, 2007, vol. 20, issue 2, 231-249

Abstract: This paper investigates the processes by which scientific knowledge is created and legitimized. It focuses on scientific developments in a branch of medicine and explores the pathways through which the growth of knowledge enables advances in medical science and in clinical practice. This work draws conceptually on evolutionary approaches to technological change. The empirical part presents a longitudinal analysis of a database of scientific publications in the field of ophthalmology over a period of 50 years. Such an exercise allows us to identify pathways of shared understanding on a disease area, and to map out distinctive trajectories followed by the ophthalmology research community. The paper also contributes to general understanding of the innovation process by supporting the notion that knowledge coordination is a distributed process that cuts across and connects complementary areas of expertise.

Keywords: Medical Innovation; Growth of Knowledge; Problem Sequences; Professional Networks; Glaucoma (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I11 O31 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Working Paper: Knowledge, understanding and the dynamics of medical innovation (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:ejessy:0083

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