Ministers Wanka and Gröhe are at the starting line – top exhibitor participation and supporting programme with many highlights
In the coming week, from 16 to 19 November 2015, Düsseldorf will again become the central meeting point of the international health business. Then, for the first time on the new set of dates from Monday to Thursday (previously: Wednesday to Saturday), the world’s largest medical trade fair, MEDICA, and the international leading supplier specialist trade fair, COMPAMED taking place at the same time, are going to start.
Focusing on the normal working days of the week will make it possible in the future to provide better guest distribution of the professional audience across the entire running time.”
Joachim Schäfer, the managing director of Messe Düsseldorf.
Both events continue to have the top participation results shown in the previous year. 4,952 exhibitors from 70 countries are participating in the MEDICA 2015 (previous year: 4,840) and the COMPAMED 2015 is also expecting more exhibitors than ever – 779 exhibitors from 37 nations (previous year: 728). This means that all 19 halls of the Düsseldorf exhibition grounds are going to be fully occupied again, whereby the COMPAMED will be occupying halls 8a and 8b.
Almost 80 percent of the MEDICA 2015 registrations are international. After Germany, the greatest booking demand has come from Italy, China, the USA, the United Kingdom and France, the Netherlands and Turkey.
The exhibitors will use the MEDICA in order to present their entire range of new products, services and processes for inpatient and outpatient care. No other event worldwide even offers close to this abundance of innovations.
Being clearly structured according to hall, focuses of the MEDICA trade fair include: Electromedicine / medical technology (approx. 2,500 exhibitors), laboratory technology / diagnostics, physiotherapy / orthopaedic technology, commodities and consumables, information and communication technology, medical furniture and specialist furnishings, and building technology for hospitals and doctors’ offices.
In parallel to this, technology solutions and services the suppliers offer for the medical technology industry are going to be the main focus at the COMPAMED 2015. The broad range of their business activities encompasses the materials sector, production issues, aspects of quality control, innovative procedures for concrete application areas, complete contract manufacturing, and so-called after-sales services for medical technology devices.
The networked patient
In view of the innovations of the exhibitors at the MEDICA, the further progressing digital networking of various players in the field of medical care can be seen as an important development – taking patients into consideration.
What started as mini-programs for mobile telephones and fitness wristbands has intensified into a mega-trend and will considerably shape treatment in the future, for example, following inpatient care at home.
Physical data, which is becoming more and more relevant on a medical level, can literally be collected, processed and transmitted in the twinkling of an eye. The number of medical apps is rising on an almost daily basis.
Experts currently assume that there are around 55,000 such mini-programs. The product innovations at the MEDICA 2015 include, for example, easy-to-operate systems for highly precise blood pressure and ECG measurement with a Bluetooth connection to smartphones or also a sensor that is similar to a frisbee disk to evaluate sleep activity.
With this, details that could only be analysed in a sleep laboratory associated with a great deal of effort can now be recorded in a bed located at home in a contactless and uncomplicated manner.
The trendsetter, MEDICA, with highlights within the supporting programme
Mobile health applications will also form a focus at the MEDICA CONNECTED HEALTHCARE FORUM, which celebrated its highly prestigious premier during the previous year, and is now going to be continued (in hall 15).
A highlight at the exhibition area of the forum is the “Avatar Kids” project. It deals with how young long-term patients will not be losing contact to school friends even during their hospital stay and how they can participate live in class.
This is made possible by the avatar robot “Nao” as a “representative” of the child in the classroom, an Internet connection as well as one tablet PC in the school and one in the clinic for managing communication.
The MEDICA HEALTH IT FORUM is also reflecting trend topics in the field of Heath IT (also in hall 15). Here, telemedicine is the primary focus. On the opening day, the Federal Minister of Education and Research, Professor Johanna Wanka, will use this IT forum to present the new development concept of the federal government for medical informatics to a widespread audience of specialists.
The objective of the development concept is to improve patient care and research possibilities by means of innovative IT systems.
Other forums integrated into the MEDICA specialist trade fair include the MEDICA TECH FORUM (product innovations in the medical technology industry as well as political, economic and legal framework conditions for high-tech medicine / hall 12) as well as the MEDICA ECON FORUM (hall 15) initiated as a joint effort by Messe Düsseldorf and the "Techniker Krankenkasse" (TK), a German health insurance company, on issues of benefit assessment and financing innovations – from the perspective of patients and health insurance companies.
Conferences closely associated with the trade fair
Also this year again, the MEDICA EDUCATION CONFERENCE, which is organised by the Germany Society for Internal Medicine (DGIM), is offering a diverse programme. The four daily topics have been selected in such a way that they result in close integration with the trade fair’s medical technological innovations: Surgery and new operational techniques (16/11), imaging, endoscopy and interventions (17/11), geriatrics, nutritional medicine and palliative care (18/11) as well as infectiology, infection and laboratory medicine (19/11).
With reference to the MEDICA conference programme, other highlights include the 38th German Hospital Conference, being a leading event for the management of German hospitals, and the European Hospital Conference, which is the meeting point of top decision-makers from European hospitals held every two years, promoting the exchange of information at an expert level.
The opening speech at the start of the MEDICA 2015 and the Hospital Conference (16/11) will be held by Federal Minister of Health, Hermann Gröhe. Following this, he will also take part in the opening of the MEDICA ECON FORUM.
The conference for disaster and military medicine, DiMiMED, as well as the MEDICA MEDICINE + SPORTS CONFERENCE (respectively on 17 + 18 November 2015 / Congress Center Düsseldorf South), concerning prevention issues and sports medical treatment concepts must also be noted. The conferences are held in English and are geared for an international audience.
For high-level representatives from military ranks, MEDICA exhibitors are, for example, offering an abundance of solutions for very special issues – ranging from equipment for emergency treatment, telemedicine applications for the secure transfer of data between vehicles and military hospitals to a complete array of surgery equipment all the way to customized turnkey building modules.
The same is true of the “bridge building” between the MEDICA MEDICINE + SPORTS CONFERENCE and the innovations being presented as part of the trade fair. These include wearables and smartwatches for example.
Those making a round in hall 15 at the MEDICA, for example, will be quite impressed by the numerous innovations for measuring vital data at the Wearable Technologies show.
Furthermore, the MEDICA PHYSIO CONFERENCE organised by the Thieme Publishing House is dedicated to trend topics. With its presentations, it is directed toward physiotherapists, sports medicine specialists and orthopaedists and is taking place this year on 18 + 19 November (Congress Center Düsseldorf South).
This year, it will once again be possible to visit MEDICA and COMPAMED with a single trade fair ticket at no extra charge. With their range of offers as well as the content of the integrated forums and accompanying conferences, they explicitly appeal to “professionals in the field”, not patients and their relatives.
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