Competitive and technology intelligence to reveal the most influential authors and inter-institutional collaborations on additive manufacturing for hand orthoses

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) is revolutionizing the health industry, where it provides innovative solutions for the production of personalized devices, such as hand orthoses. However, the scientific research dynamics in this topic have not yet been investigated. This study aims to fill this gap through the application of a competitive and technology intelligence (CTI) methodology enhanced by a scientometric and network map analysis. Major advances in the fabrication of hand orthoses using AM, the presence of collaborations, and the most influential authors were determined. Specifically, network map analysis, bibliographic occurrence and bibliographic coupling were conducted on documents retrieved from Scopus and the Web of Science (WoS), and on patents from more than 104 authorities. Results showed only nine published patent families and 34 research articles on this topic from 2006 to 2016. Ten papers concern static orthoses, while 24 deal with dynamic orthoses and exoskeletons. The indegree and outdegree parameters and the betweenness centrality of these documents enabled us to determine the most cited authors and instances of collaboration (papers co-authored between institutions). Dr. Paterson A. M. J. was the most influential author, with four publications with the highest betweenness centrality in the network (189), which accounted for the most cited document with five citations. The institution with the most publications was Loughborough University, with four papers, and the collaboration between affiliations was rare. These documents review important aspects of manufacturing orthoses using AM, and additionally pay particular attention to the importance of personalised orthoses where AM contributes. Notably, these papers focused primarily on studies for the development of a methodology for the fabrication of hand orthoses using AM, but they do not present any application. This research provides insights to better understand the dynamics of research and development in the orthopaedics domain, specifically for hand orthoses.