const regex = new RegExp('(?:^|, )\\d+(?=\\s*[A-Z])', 'gm')
const str = `1John Radcliffe Hospital/Oxford/United Kingdom, 11Ruhr-Universität
3/Bochum/Bochum/Germany, 3University of British Columbia/Vancouver/Canada, 4National
Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry/Tokyo/Japan,
5University of Catania/Catania/Italy, 6F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd/Basel/Switzerland, 7
University of Colorado School of Medicine/Aurora/United States of America`;
const subst = `\g<0>=`;
// The substituted value will be contained in the result variable
const result = str.replace(regex, subst);
console.log('Substitution result: ', result);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for JavaScript, please visit: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Regular_Expressions