03/01/2023
What are innovations?
What do you associate the word “innovation” with? The word means the action or process of making changes to something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas or products. Its current common use emphasizes the implication of “creation of a new world through technology.”
We live in a world that is becoming more and more convenient through innovation. For example, a few decades ago, if you wanted to call someone while you were out and about, you had to look for a public phone, but the emergence of mobile phones allowed you to make phone calls wherever you were. Now the development of smartphones enables you to carry in your hand a device that functions as a phone, a personal computer, a digital camera, a portable media player, and more. Innovation also has an aspect of creative destruction. This means that the emergence of a new product or feature that delivers more desirable benefits to consumers can involve a kind of paradigm shift, such as the creation of a new market or the elimination of existing businesses.
The ophthalmic field in which Santen is involved has also so far seen some significant technological innovations, so we may experience destructive innovation in the near future. Here is an introduction to past innovations and emerging technologies, with prospects for bringing about future innovations in the ophthalmic field.
