Foreign universities outnumber locals in SA medical devices research

Research into new medical devices in South Africa is dominated by foreign partners and institutions, a research paper in the South African Journal of Science has found.

University of Cape Town researchers examined collaboration and publication data from universities, hospitals and companies published between 2000 and 2013.

The data suggests that international universities see South Africa as fertile ground for medical device research. Foreign academic institutions accounted for most of the individual institutions involved, followed by South African hospitals. International universities outnumbered South African ones three-to-one.