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Neurological and psychiatric disorders are serious and expensive global public health problems. Therefore, exploring effective intervention technologies plays an important role in improving patients’ clinical symptoms and social functions, as well as reducing medical burden.
The aim of this study is to analyze and summarize the key new technologies and innovative development trends witnessed globally for neurological illness and psychiatric disorders by mining the relevant patent data.
A bibliometric analysis was conducted on patent applications, priority countries, main patentees, hot technologies, and other patent information on neurological and psychiatric disorders, revealing the current situation along with the trend of technology development in this field.
In recent years, inventions and innovations related to neurological and psychiatric diseases have become very active, with China being the largest patent priority country. Of the top patent holders, Visicu (headquartered in the United States) is the leader. The distribution of patent holders in China remains relatively scattered, with no monopoly organization at present. Global technologies on neurological illness and psychiatric disorders are mainly concentrated around A61B (diagnosis, surgery, and identification).
This paper analyzed and summarized the key new technologies and global innovative development trends of neurological and psychiatric diseases by mining the relevant patent data, and provides practical references and research perspectives for the prevention and treatment of the aforesaid diseases.
Neurological diseases mainly include diseases of the central nervous system, peripheral nervous system, skeletal muscle, among others, whereas mental diseases pertain to obstacles in mental development, emotion, volition, and behavior, etc. Although neurological illness and psychiatric disorders [
Many of the aforementioned technological achievements have successfully clarified the causes of several neurological and psychiatric diseases and reported the prevention and treatment measures. For example, the development of neural networks, internet, and big data technologies has enabled the prevention and treatment of related diseases at both population and individual levels. Analysis of the technological achievements concerning neurological and psychiatric diseases worldwide can reveal the progress and achieved cure level of each country in this field. Patent databases, an important analysis object, include more than 90% of the latest and most detailed technical information, and thus can accurately reflect the overall situation and development trend of technological innovation in global neurological and psychiatric diseases. Moreover, by performing patent bibliometric analysis, the internal information about technologies on neurological and psychiatric diseases such as distribution structure, quantitative relationship, and change rules can be clarified. Therefore, this study applied patent bibliometric analysis to explore the global research status and development trend of neurological and psychiatric diseases to provide valuable references for promoting the prevention and treatment of neurological and psychiatric diseases from an information science perspective.
Information about technologies on neurological and psychiatric diseases (IPC A61B5, G16 and H04, LOC 24) was retrieved and collected by International Patent Classification (IPC) and Locarno Classification (LOC). The date of data retrieval and download was September 1, 2019, and a total of 328 valid relevant patents were obtained.
The search keywords were psychosis, rehabilitation, psychology, rehabilitation training, rehabilitation resource survey, mental illness, mental trauma, psychological care, alzheimer’s, schizo, autism, anxiety, depressed, paranoid, manic, commit suicide, and so on. The retrieval type was “or.” First, all patent data were converted into plain text format and directly imported into a professional data analyzer (Thomson Data Analyzer [TDA]). The data were then cleaned, integrated, and analyzed. We adopted patentometric analysis and visualization to investigate the global technology development trends in the field of neurological and psychiatric disorders based on the following: patent application, distribution of patent priority countries, major patentees, hot technologies, patent citations, and so on.
A total of 328 patents related to neurological and psychiatric diseases were retrieved from 16 countries (regions), including 191 applications for inventions, 104 grants for inventions, 16 designs, and 17 utility models. Trend analysis was performed on the number of patent applications submitted annually (
Trend chart of patent application.
If an applicant files a patent application for his invention in one country for the first time and then files a patent application for the same subject matter in another country within the statutory period, the date of the first patent application shall be used as the filing date for the subsequent application according to the relevant law, so as to exclude the possibility of copying the patent in other countries and filing a pre-emptive application to obtain registration. By analyzing the distribution of patent priority countries, the attention and technical strength of various countries in this field can be deduced.
Global regional distribution of patent applications.
An analysis of those holding patents (ie, patent holders) on technologies useful for treating neurological and psychiatric disorders and the identification of major application agencies in this field can provide a strategic basis for interagency cooperation and competition. Visicu headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, ranks second in the number of applications submitted and is the largest transferee of related patents in the world. As a clinical IT service provider and medical monitoring system developer, the company mainly develops and applies remote patient monitoring and diagnostic support technologies. Visicu was acquired by Royal Philips in 2008 (with the acquisition estimated to be 30 times the income before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization calculation). As can be seen from
Patent form of Visicu (United States).
Patent name | Publication number | Application date | Reference |
Remote command center for patient monitoring | US8175895B2 | March 4, 2005 | [ |
System for providing expert care to a basic care medical facility from a remote location | US7991625B2 | May 31, 2006 | [ |
System and method for displaying a health status of hospitalized patients | US7433827B2 | February 18, 2005 | [ |
Using predictive models to continuously update a treatment plan for a patient in a health care location | US7395216B2 | May 31, 2006 | [ |
System and method for displaying a health status of hospitalized patients | US20060161459A9 | March 31, 2005 | [ |
System and method for standardizing care in a hospital environment | US20060122869A9 | February 18, 2005 | [ |
Remote command center for patient monitoring relationship to other applications | US20060085229A9 | March 4, 2005 | [ |
System and method for displaying a health status of hospitalized patients | US20050187796A1 | March 31, 2005 | [ |
Remote command center for patient monitoring relationship to other applications | US20050177400A1 | March 4, 2005 | [ |
System and method for standardizing care in a hospital environment | US20050159987A1 | February 18, 2005 | [ |
The most frequently cited patent of Visicu is US7395216B2 [
An analysis of the hotspots of patents related to neurological and psychiatric diseases indicated that researchers in the field are making continuous efforts to identifying new therapies and drugs, to further improve the effect of treatment and reduce the recurrence rate. Among the patents related to neurological illness and psychiatric disorders, most countries, especially the United States, have focused on A61B (ie, diagnosis, surgery, and identification;
Patent technical distribution. CN, China; DE, Germany; FR, France; IN, India; JP, Japan; KR, Korea; RU, Russia; UA, Ukraine; US, United States; WIPO, World Intellectual Property Organization.
The US patents also concentrate on electric digital data processing (G06F), mainly the technologies related to internet big data. Among the US G06F patents, the latest trend pertains to computer-aided patient navigation and information systems. Such a system scans a patient’s electronic and oral communication to determine the medical needs of the patient, and then displays relevant information to appropriate medical personnel who can immediately advise the patient of the most appropriate source of medical assistance based on the identified symptoms.
China pays increased attention to the G16H (2018) class of patents, which pertains to psychotherapy research, and involves mainly psychotherapy, self-training, or computer-aided diagnosis. For example, the Medical Expert System [
The global patents for neurological and psychiatric disorders were mainly invention patents (
Chinese invention patent grants related to neurological and psychiatric disorders were relatively few (
Types of global patents on neurological and psychiatric diseases.
Countries and regions | Invention/patent application, n | Invention patent grants, n | Design patents, n | Utility models, n |
China | 72 | 9 | 16 | 12 |
United States | 52 | 33 | 0 | 0 |
Russia | 4 | 40 | 0 | 2 |
World Intellectual Property Organization | 24 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Korea | 10 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
Japan | 8 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
France | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
Germany | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
India | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Ukraine | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Brazil | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Canada | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
European Patent Office | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
United Kingdom | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Besides invention patents, China, Russia, Ukraine, Brazil, and other countries (regions) have utility model patents, but their number is very small, which indicates that most technologies in this field are protected by invention patents. Because this field is mainly concerned with methods such as medicine, the relevant patents are difficult to be protected with utility models. Moreover, China has design patents on equipment and instruments.
Generally, the higher the value of a patent, the more it will be transferred, and the more likely it will involve hot technologies in this field. The global trend of patent transfer is shown in
Global trend of patent transfer.
As can be seen from the global transferor ranking (
Visicu has received 9 patents, which is the largest assignee (
According to the life cycle diagram of patents (
Life cycle diagram of patents.
Between 2005 and 2015, the number of patent applicants has increased to a certain extent, but the number of patents has not risen significantly, suggesting that although more applicants paid attention to neurological and psychiatric diseases, the technology has not made much progress. Since 2015, with increasing public concerns for this field, and based on the development of big data and internet platform technologies, the patent field has begun to undergo certain transformations. Therefore, the number of applicants and applications for related patents has witnessed a sharp rise since. The most recent application (US20190200915) was on digital biomarkers for cognition and movement diseases or disorders, which assessed a cognition and movement disease or disorder in an individual suspected to have one [
Research and development on patents for neurological and psychiatric disorders are significantly influenced by government policies and the market. Therefore, the number of applications and applicants will grow each time when this field is favorably affected. This means that neurological and psychiatric diseases remain in the focus of scientific and technological development, and professionals are still very much interested in it.
China, as the country with the largest number of patents related to technologies on neurological and psychiatric diseases, has 107 related patents, which mainly focus on A61B and G16H. Jilin Longjin Technology Co., Ltd., the applicant with the most patents on this topic in the world, is headquartered in China. China has not only applied for many invention patents, but also applied for 11 utility model patents and 15 appearance designs. Most global utility models and appearance design patents for community psychiatric rehabilitation are in fact Chinese patents. However, the authorization rate of invention patents in China remains very low, which may be because most patents in China were only proposed after 2015 and are thus still in the substantive examination stage. Although China had put forward relevant theories later than the United States and other Western countries, it has caught up and currently occupies a large market. The number of patents for neurological illness and psychiatric disorders in the United States is second only to that in China, with a total of 85, but all of these are invention applications with a high authorization rate. Besides A61B, the United States focuses on G06F, which is slightly different from that of China. Russia closely follows the United States, being the third country with 46 related patents, which is only about half of the number of US patents. The per-capita patent applications of Russian applicants are extremely low, with only 1 applicant applying for 3 patents and the rest applying for only 1 patent. Furthermore, unlike China and the United States, Russia’s patents are mainly focused on medical diagnosis and medical devices. There are no patents involving mobile devices.
The global development of technologies on neurological and psychiatric disorders shows the following characteristics: (1) The technology is increasingly mature. The number of patent applications in recent years has remained at a high level. Inventions and innovations are very active, with China currently being the largest patent priority country. (2) European and American companies, with a strong independent innovation capability, have considerable advantages in the area of research and development. The distribution of patent holders in China remains relatively scattered, with no technology monopoly organization at present. It is thus necessary to strengthen the collaboration between production, teaching, and research. (3) The types of patent applications worldwide are mainly invention patents. A few countries such as China and Russia have applied for a small number of utility model patents. (4) Patents mainly pertain to A61B (ie, medical and hygienic fields). By 2011, the classification number G16H (ie, health care informatics) was added, and eventually patents about internet-related mobile terminal platforms began to appear. The number of applications has increased year by year. As a newly emerging technology, there is still however great room for its development. From the special perspective of patents, this paper investigated the key technologies and development directions of industries as well as the technology combination and technology investment trends of major competitors for enterprises or countries, so as to establish technology research and application strategies on neurological and psychiatric diseases.
This paper had certain limitations. Because of the large number of patents involving neurological and psychiatric diseases, it is impossible to make a detailed interpretation of the contents of each document. Therefore, this study focused on the key technical points, categories, and regions of the patents, and illustrated the layout of the patents based on the primary and secondary technical points of the cluster diagram.
Based on this analysis, we concluded the following: (1) The United States, as a relatively mature country in the development of existing technologies, can focus its attention on further development in this area. (2) Technologies on neurological and psychiatric disorders in China have a low authorization rate for invention patents. It is thus suggested to improve the quality of Chinese patent applications and submit high-value patents. (3) In Russia, the number of patent applications on neurological and psychiatric diseases is generally small, but the authorization rate is extremely high, and therefore these need to be tracked.
Global patent type.
Global ranking of patent transferors.
Global ranking of patent assignees.
Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies
Brain Mapping by Integrated Neurotechnologies for Disease Studies
Human Brain Project
International Patent Classification
Locarno Classification
National Institute of Medicine
National Science Foundation
National Natural Science Foundation
Thomson Data Analyzer
FZ developed the study design under the guidance of SW. LW and ZZ collected records and formulated the query with assistance from FZ. All authors provided contributions to the final version of the paper and approved it.
None declared.