Implementation of a distance learning program focused on continuing medical education with the support of patent-based data mining.

AutorFerraz, Renato Ribeiro Nogueira
  1. Introduction

    The study of patents can be considered important since these documents constitute a vast source of information and technological knowledge, reporting innovations and inventions in the most varied subjects and sectors (Bergek et al., 2015). It is through them that new technologies are discovered, relations between companies and inventors are established, nations with superior innovation development and data protection are identified, and the main research and development centers of the world are mapped (Ferraz, Quoniam, Reymond, & Maccari, 2016).

    Given the importance of the subject, and due to the economic impact on nations (Lastres, Cassiolato, Lemos, Maldonado, & Vargas, 1999), several authors have published research on patent innovation (Morescalchi, Pammolli, Penner, Petersen, & Riccaboni, 2015), patent-mining technologies (Larose, 2014; Tseng, Lin, & Lin, 2007), patent networks (White, 2006) and their use in the academic community (Correa & Gomes, 2013; Quoniam, Kniess, & Mazzieri, 2014; Simoes, Baessa, Campolina, & Silva, 2002).

    However, Storopoli (2016) reported that there are few studies related to patents and distance learning (DL), and this number is further reduced when trying to identify DL patents for continuing medical education (Hassanzadeh, Kanaani, & Elahi, 2012; Hung, 2012). Thus, to address this shortage, the present study addresses the following question: "How can we increase and disseminate knowledge in DL patents in the area of continuing medical education using a data mining tool?"

    In order to answer this question, this paper uses a qualitative research method--with a descriptive character--to demonstrate how information about DL patents related to continuing medical education can be extracted, organized and made available, in the form of graphs and dynamic tables.

    In this context, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the Patent2net computational tool collects and organizes the massive amounts of information related to DL patents--which is focused on continuing medical education--thus reinforcing its importance as an example of an Open Patent Service (OPS) for the whole society. The automation of the collection and organization of the patent information demonstrates that researchers, as well as any member of society, interested in knowing and/or evaluating technical information present in patent documents, can have access to new technologies. Furthermore, there is, currently, an enormous amount of underutilized data in the databases that make a manual search of these documents nearly impossible, which justifies the use of mining data tools, such as Patent2net Thus, through the use of this computational tool, information related to patents, previously deposited only in the deep web, becomes easily accessible in dynamic search interfaces available on the surface web, contributing to the expansion of technical and scientific knowledge, which in turn can bring a series of benefits to the nations or corporations that make use of them, promoting the creation of practical improvements in various aspects of daily life.

    For this, in addition to this Introduction, the section on Theoretical Framework is presented, which discusses the importance of studying patents in the technological and managerial scope, the models of computational tools used for the search of patents, and the process of data mining of patents using computational tools, as well as an emphasis on the Patent2net tool being used to identify DL patents related to health and education. Next, the section entitled Research methodology is presented, in which the basic search mechanisms and procedures using the Patent2net data mining program are discussed, as well as its application to this work. In the Description and Analysis of Results section, the layout of the web pages generated after the treatment of the patent documents, which were extracted from a worldwide database, Espacenet, with more than 110m patent documents are shown. Finally, in the Final Considerations section, we discuss the use of Patent2net for collecting and organizing the information related to DL in continuing medical education patents, discuss the limitations of the research and highlight the gaps that can serve as suggestions for the accomplishment of future studies focused on the theme proposed in the present work.

  2. Theoretical framework

    In this section, we present the main theoretical pillars that support this work: the concept of patents, the models of computational tools used in searching for, the computational tool Patent2net, DL and continuing medical education.

    2.1 Patent study

    Patents are important sources of information related to new technologies and innovations that, oftentimes, result in social improvements and increases in financial performance, ensure unspoken knowledge of a nation or organization and generate a sustainable competitive advantage in the market (Ferraz et al., 2016). For this reason, the organization of patent databases allows a large amount of constantly updated technological information to remain available for consultation and analysis throughout society (Franca, 1997). This fact allows for the dissemination of information (Correa & Gomes, 2013; Simoes et al., 2002), with the knowledge of the inventors and their organizations evidently respected, since these documents become available in full after the legal period of 18 months of confidentiality, from patent filing to disclosure (Quoniam et al., 2014). It is worth mentioning that databases allow the visualization of patents granted and protected by law, patents that have been denied and which are in turn free to be improved and used by others (Ferraz et al., 2016), as well as patents that were granted but whose protection was not extended to all countries, making their replication legally permissible in these places (Barbieri & Alvares, 2005).

    Identifying patents, both denied and granted, but not extended to other countries for any reason, may lead to a review of technologies and the motivation of incremental innovations on any subject (Serafini, Paixao, Oliveira-Junior, Santos, & Da Silva, 2012). Additionally, the analysis of these patents brings with it a variety of technological information, often presented superficially in scientific articles (Simoes et al., 2002), which can serve as a bibliographical review in future studies on innovation and new technologies (Melo et al., 2014; Quoniam et al., 2014). Another important point regarding patents, granted without extension to other countries, is the possibility of replication in these countries, allowing them to use the innovation described in patent documents to promote radical improvements in their products and processes (Choi & Heinemann, 2016).

    Patents also contribute to the technological and economic development of nations, by assisting in strategic decisions in the public and private sectors (Bergek et al., 2015). Through them, organizations decide whether to act, for example, with open innovations (Chesbrough, 2006), integrating external and internal knowledge (Laursen & Salter, 2006) or generating innovations. Thus, organizations can establish which dynamic capabilities they have to develop such technologies (Teece, 2007).

    Another important point is the positive relationship between patents developed by an organization and its economic evolution in the market (Ernst, 2003). According to Ferraz, Quoniam, Reymond, and Maccari (2016), one way to form this relationship is to analyze the volume of patents developed by this organization, its applicability within the market, the number of citations this patent has and the quantity of bibliographic productions originated from them.

    Thus, the study of patents is an interesting way of evaluating the economic performance of a nation (Bergek et al., 2015) or organization (Morescalchi et al., 2015), making it possible to understand the most current technological advances (Aoki & Schiff, 2008; Bonino, Ciaramella, & Corno, 2010; Serafini et al., 2012), as well as market innovations (Chesbrough, 2006).

    2.2 Models of computational patent search tools

    The analysis of patent content through textual reading and evaluation has great value for developing countries (Ferraz et al., 2016), as for example, Brazil. To understand this importance, according to Correa and Gomes (2013), only 5 percent of innovations protected by patents in developed countries are extended to the others, which mean that 95 percent of the documents are in the public domain. These patents, in turn, can be legally replicated anywhere and by anyone, which generates a large volume of inventions that can be employed to solve the everyday problems faced by organizations or nations (Quoniam et al., 2014).

    Following the 18-month confidentiality period of the patent content (gap of secrecy), any organization or inventor may acquire the information necessary for the replication of the information contained in them. However, the patent documents are deposited in a restricted area of the internet called the deep web (Ferraz et al., 2016), in which the popular search engines cannot function in a way that allows for the joint analysis of the information present in the patent documents, which forces the researcher to analyze each patent one by one, in a fragmented way, making this process time consuming and unproductive. This information needs to be made available in a way that allows for a dynamic analysis, based on indicators related to patents, such as the technologies involved, their inventors, sponsoring companies, protection countries, legal status and number of citations, among others. Additionally, the network relationships among inventors, companies, countries and technologies, as well as their geographical maps are also necessary when utilizing computational tools for patent searches. For this reason, search engines have been coupled with patent databases such as Patentscope (Bonino...

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