According to the PwC Medical Technology Innovation Scorecard released in 2011, researchers predict that China, India, and Brazil will experience the strongest gains in healthcare innovation over the next ten years. Meanwhile, the US, Japan, Israel, France, the UK, and Germany are set to decline.

PwC defines innovation as “value-creating novelty.” They explain that “a new idea or product becomes innovative only when it creates value...In business, innovation that is not commercialized is essentially worthless.” One can divide innovation into three categories based on the amount of value it generates: incremental (adding a new feature to an existing product), substantial (next generation), and radical (revolutionary).

For the past 50 years, the US has been an “ideal innovation ecosystem” leading US companies to dominate the $350 billion global device industry. Thirty-two of the 46 medical technology companies that earn more than $1 billion revenue annually are based in the US. According to PwC, the US’s dominance stems from its strength in five innovation pillars: powerful financial incentives, leading resources for innovation, supportive regulatory system, demanding and price-insensitive patients, and supportive investment community.