Innovation in the healthcare industry

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged, transformed and still transforming the healthcare industry, besides there is an increasing pressure on healthcare. The main influencing factors are: technological developments, increasing societal expectations, the amount of health data to be recovered, rising health costs and aging population. The solution lies in healthcare innovations. In fact, the impact of COVID-19 has accelerated the research, development and innovation activities in the healthcare sector, which will hopefully have long-term positive effects. After briefly exploring the concept of innovation in the literature, the study focuses on the outstanding role of corporate innovation, which accounts for about two-thirds of Europe's economic growth in recent decades. The overall performance of the innovation system of the European Union member states is presented, with a special focus on the Hungarian innovation performance, which plays a key role for health industry innovations in improving the overall innovation performance. It is considered the characteristics of the health industry from an economic point of view. The definition and areas of the health industry, the statistics of Hungarian research and development and innovation (R & D & I) applicable to this field, the significance and measurability of innovation in the health industry are presented, and the main barriers and drivers of health industry development are mentioned. The main features of the innovation and development of the studied area are highlighted. Overall, it has been concluded that R&D expenditures on the healthcare industry play a significant role in Hungary, which represents a serious opportunity to handle these challenges. Health industry developments have a huge potential for innovation, which greatly affects the competitiveness of the state at both corporate and industry levels.