services; technology as production methods, techniques, and processes; and tech-
nology as the acquired knowledge and skills.
Technology transfer is a process of transferring of economically applicable
solutions (new products, new production processes, etc.) and technical knowledge
and experiences (i.e., know-how) from the one business entity (technology pro-
vider) to another business entity (technology acquirer) with the payment of certain
royalties. The success of the technology transfer process depends on several
particular specific conditions that must be satisfied, especially for developing
countries. According to Cohen, these conditions are related to the definition of
the market needs; demand for the appropriate technologies; examination of relevant
and appropriate technologies; adaption of technologies to the domestic conditions,
including the social, political, cultural, and economic factors; public presentation of
technology value in the social and economic sense; technology implementation and
application; and technology dissemination to the relevant sectors.^2
In the process of technology transfer, the health care systems are usually forced
to change their paradigm. The pressure induced by the implementation of the
technology transfer concept caused the new circumstances that induce new prod-
ucts, new processes, and new ways of doing business. Thus, the new businesses
create new jobs, new ideas, new products, new approaches to the market, and new
services. The concept of innovation is not only associated with science and tech-
nology development. Innovation is the driving force that always results in certain
progress.
The specific measure for innovation capacity of a particular country is perceived
by the number of granted patents. Innovation capacity in the terms of globalization
and strong interdependence between technology transfer process and competitive-
ness is usually observed at the national level. The number of granted patents in
specific fields of science indicates the level of innovativeness but at the same time
technology advantage. In Table 1 is presented the number of granted patents in the
EU by the technology fields of biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.
The overall technological superiority of the United States in the fields of
biotechnology and pharmaceuticals is occurring. Over the one-third of the total
number of granted patents in these two technological fields are generated in the
United States. Therefore, it can be concluded that US medicine is representative in
terms of personalized medicine, but the EU also recognized the possibilities and
advantages of this approach and is going into this direction.
The personalized medicine concept is a result of different influences—by the
antagonism between technology transfer process on one side and cost reduction on
the other. This antagonism, by using the marketing concept and process manage-
ment and focusing on innovation and creativity, produced the foundation for the
development of the personalized medicine approach. Since the creativity process
and fostering innovation are the main concept of US technology development
process, as well as strong implementation of marketing concept and process
(^2) Cohen ( 2004 ).
98 P. Karanikic