Bibliometric Analysis of Health Technology Research: 1990~2020

Abstract

This paper aims to summarize the publishing trends, current status, research topics, and frontier evolution trends of health technology between 1990 and 2020 through various bibliometric analysis methods. In total, 6663 articles retrieved from the Web of Science core database were analyzed by Vosviewer and CiteSpace software. This paper found that: (1) The number of publications in the field of health technology increased exponentially; (2) there is no stable core group of authors in this research field, and the influence of the publishing institutions and journals in China is insufficient compared with those in Europe and the United States; (3) there are 21 core research topics in the field of health technology research, and these research topics can be divided into four classes: hot spots, potential hot spots, margin topics, and mature topics. C21 (COVID-19 prevention) and C10 (digital health technology) are currently two emerging research topics. (4) The number of research frontiers has increased in the past five years (2016–2020), and the research directions have become more diverse; rehabilitation, pregnancy, e-health, m-health, machine learning, and patient engagement are the six latest research frontiers.