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The Hard Case of White Cataracts: Appropriation of Surgical Science

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Eradicating Blindness

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Abstract

Through a process of appropriation, the challengers created incremental and radical innovations in the niches. South Asian community ophthalmology professionals adapted and reinvented the surgical science of extracapsular cataract extraction to make it into a microsurgical technique and therefore provided the unique benefits of microsurgery to their patients. They were reconfiguring the users of microsurgical science from being wealthy urbanites to the rural poor. These professionals also created interlocking innovations that are multiple and complimentary, and composed of radical, incremental, and sub-system innovations. Aurolab (India) and Tilganga-FHIOL (Nepal) together sell more than 7% (by volume) of global intraocular lenses. Such a high market share represents a fully developed technology that can move from niche to regime. The linked finance, management, scientific, and technological innovations are now called interlocking innovations.

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    Logan D. A. Williams

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Williams, L.D.A. (2019). The Hard Case of White Cataracts: Appropriation of Surgical Science. In: Eradicating Blindness. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1625-8_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1625-8_6

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