Each year INSEAD produce their Global Innovation Index in an attempt to rank the nations of the world on their innovative capabilities.  As the rankings seldom change a great deal from one year to the next, the authors like to focus on specific themes to add a bit of spice to proceedings.

This year, the theme of the report is healthcare, and the authors highlight some of the innovation emerging from developing countries, with frugal innovations documented in countries ranging from India to Rwanda.

As one of the core Millennium Development Goals, the authors highlight the growth not only in direct innovation expenditure in healthcare, but also in related areas such as driverless cars, that can have significant impact on the health of people.

They highlight that Singapore has been at the forefront of medical innovation, with the government prioritizing health and medicine in its innovation strategy.  Despite the investment, the report highlights a number of challenges facing the sector.

Healthcare challenges

Foremost among these are ethical challenges, whether in terms of genetic engineering that is still at a nascent stage, or the growing use of artificial intelligence in health and medicine.

There are also various social challenges to tackle as ageing societies seek access to quality healthcare.  Rising costs are an issue across the developed world, with the rising income of those in emerging economies placing greater demands on health systems.

These blend into economic challenges that present the biggest immediate hurdle, not least as big data and artificial intelligence make their way into healthcare more and more.  As data becomes an ever more powerful ingredient, the authors worry about the role companies such as Google and Baidu may play in the future of healthcare, not least in the disruption they present to the business models currently used in healthcare today.

Innovation leaders

In terms of the overall rankings, familiar names are apparent throughout the top ten, with Switzerland topping the standings for the ninth consecutive year, with the top 10 dominated by just 12 countries over the past four years.  The notable new entrant was Israel, who enter the top 10 courtesy of their expertise in business sophistication and app creation.

Switzerland continues to dominate courtesy of its strength in intellectual property and environmental protection, whereas the UK continues to thrive as a result of the quality of its universities and scientific publications.

The authors believe that the most innovative countries tend to be those in which a large economy exists and these economies have a diverse range of products and services to export.  As such, you wouldn’t bet against Switzerland topping the table again next year too.