A bibliometric analysis of technology in sustainable healthcare : emerging trends and future directions

Technology application in healthcare is a recent field devoted to sustainability in the healthcare industry. However, research in this sector has grown at a rapid pace. While this expansion has been advantageous for the discipline, it has also made it more difficult to grasp its extent. As a result, answering questions such as the most important emerging trends in technology for sustainable healthcare research, the most critical breakthrough papers, the influence of these papers, and the most productive and leading researchers have become challenging. Finally, understanding the intellectual framework of the knowledge base on Technology for Sustainable Healthcare (TSH) is also difficult. This study attempted to address these issues by presenting an overview of research work in TSH and, in doing so, attempted to answer some of the previously listed problems. The PRISMA model, along with the science mapping review process using bibliometric analysis tools such as VOSviewer and Python, was employed to analyze published works in healthcare technology indexed in the Scopus database over a span of 24 years. Although research in TSH had been progressing rapidly before the COVID-19 pandemic, the current accelerated shift in TSH research over the past four years may be attributed to the pandemic itself as well as advancements in technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the Internet of Things. We also discuss current research themes, prolific authors, institutions, journals, and relationships among published works in TSH. Finally, we present the challenges and prospects of TSH research. The findings of our study would be helpful to researchers working in technology for sustainable healthcare.