Abstract
A comprehensive survey of the development trends, trend evolution, and spatial non-equilibrium characteristics of the intelligent smart medical industry in the Yangtze River Economic Belt could provide significant policy implications for optimizing the spatial layout of the integrated development of the smart medical industry in this region. Using the Criteria Importance Though Intercriteria Correlation objective evaluation method for a study period from 2016 to 2020, 11 provinces and cities along the Yangtze River Economic Belt were quantitatively evaluated in relation to the development of the smart medical industry. Accordingly, the application of exploratory spatial data analysis, the kernel density estimation, and the Dagum Gini coefficient and its decomposition method were used to comprehensively evaluate the trends in the Yangtze River Economic Belt's smart medical industry regarding trend evolution and unbalanced spatial characteristics. The overall level of development of the smart medical industry in the Yangtze River Economic Belt was not good. It showed an increasing spatial pattern from the western inland to eastern coastal regions. The development of the artificial intelligence industry in the Yangtze River Economic Belt showed a positive spatial autocorrelation with significant "spatial spillover effects." The local agglomeration mode was mainly high (a high cluster). In addition, industrial development showed a multi-polarization trend. Although the degree of spatial disequilibrium in the artificial intelligence industry development along the Yangtze River Economic Belt has decreased in recent years, the degree of spatial disequilibrium remains significant.