Six pioneering French companies to exhibit in innovation zone at Medica 2016

In a global market worth almost €200 billion (around £173 billion) a year, the medical devices and in vitro diagnostics sector is particularly innovative in France. Across the Channel, the sector is comprised of over a thousand companies, employing almost 65,000 people with expertise encompassing medicine, mechanics, material physics and digital technologies. The French market is estimated to be worth €15 billion (around £13 billion) with around 700 new patent applications filed every year, considerably boosting the sector’s value. Despite being largely made up of SMEs along with some microbusinesses and a few large groups, almost 74% of these organisations have R&D and/or production departments.

The healthcare industry is navigating profound changes and, in response, is using innovation as a growth driver. R&D generates brand new solutions that deliver performance and security for both patients and doctors alike. Medical robotics is making technical medical interventions easier. French companies are at the leading edge of all of these technologies, helping to achieve what was previously believed to be impossible.

Six French companies, particularly at the cutting edge of medical technology, will be in the spotlight in the Innovation zone at Medica 2016 in Hall 17 (17A40A 0 17A40E and 17C24F):

AXILUM ROBOTICS will be presenting the world’s first and only robot designed for transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Its non-invasive neurostimulation technique offers therapeutic applications for psychiatric and neurological conditions, severe depression, chronic neuropathic pain and post-stroke conditions which are resistant to drug therapies. TMS could change the lives of millions of people living with chronic pain. It can considerably lessen drug-resistant symptoms by acting on affected parts of the brain. These robotic solutions, marketed since 2014, are sold or leased with maintenance contracts.

MDOLORIS MEDICAL SYSTEM (17C24F) is the first global player able to provide hospital practitioners with non-invasive systems to continuously monitor pain. Of the three components of anaesthesia, analgesia is the only one not to have previously been measured objectively. For the very first time, this monitoring solution allows clinicians to objectively measure the pain felt by patients, enabling them to administer personalised quantities of painkiller to both conscious and unconscious patients.

MIRAVAS is exhibiting VBOX^®, the first medical device to treat varicose veins with water vapour, for use in the operating room. Similar to other endothermic techniques (lasers, radiofrequencies, water vapour), its mechanism of action, that is emission of heat into the vein, causes collagen fibres in the vein wall that are obstructing the vein to retract. VBOX^® delivers its steam treatment by sufficiently heating the body of sterile water contained in its handpiece so that it turns into steam. This heating process also raises the pressure in the handpiece up to saturation vapour pressure, allowing water vapour to be injected into the vein through a catheter or needle.

Venous diseases affect millions of people, half of whom report having varicose veins. In terms of public health, the human and economic stakes are therefore considerable. Various European health insurance systems encourage the adoption of new minimally invasive techniques and the development of outpatient surgery to maximise patient comfort while staying on top of healthcare expenditure. VBOX^® is a competitively priced and medically congruent device that makes it possible to treat the full spectrum of venous diseases in the doctor’s office. Its CE certification ensures it is available to angiologists and vascular surgeons in Europe.

PHYSIO-ASSIST specialises in medical devices aimed at patients with obstructive respiratory illnesses. Its Simeox^® range offers healthcare professionals access to breakthrough technology in bronchial decongestion and meets the primary needs of patients with cystic fibrosis or chronic bronchitis. Its thixotropic properties thin mucus and create turbulence by stimulating the tracheo-bronchial air at a distinctive frequency, resulting in bronchial drainage. Its performance, which has been proven in a clinical tolerance trial, improves the medical service delivered. It enables patients to carry out effective bronchial clearance independently and less painfully whilst also considerably reducing treatment costs. The Simeox^® medical device and its consumables are now CE-labelled so that they can be marketed to physiotherapists via distributors for European markets, as well as countries with EEA trading agreements in place. It comes with a connected touchscreen interface and a travel pouch with space for storing medical consumables and the remote control.

ROBOSOFT SERVICES ROBOTS will be presenting Kompaï, the connected assistant for caregivers that helps frail people live independently at home or in institutions. This robot improves people’s physical independence, helps them feel safe, especially in the event of a fall, monitors health to improve prevention, provides cognitive stimulus and facilitates day-to-day life by supporting social contact, allowing users to send emails by voice command. It also offers data processing capabilities.

THERAPIXEL is revolutionising surgery through touchless visual recognition with Fluid, a medical image navigation system designed for the operating room. Operated entirely by gesture-based commands, it offers efficient access to patients’ radiological files in sterile conditions. No need to touch anything! The operating room diary is used to preload examinations in advance. Patient information is loaded by selection from the daily operating list. Fluid is compatible with all PACS on the market and gives access to all patient images, both pre and intraoperative, regardless of how they were generated.

Along with these 6 innovators, a total of 218 French companies will be exhibiting at the group pavilion run by Business France – the national agency supporting the international development of the French economy – at Medica, the global healthcare exhibition, on 14^th-17^th November 2016 in Düsseldorf.

• Hall 3: diagnostic and laboratory Equipment
   
• Halls 4 and 5: physiotherapy and orthopedics
   
• Hall 7a: consumer goods and textiles
   
• Hall 15: new information and communications technologies
   
• Halls 16 and 17: electro-medicine and operating room equipment
   
• Hall 8b (Compamed): subcontracting for medical manufacturing (micro-technology, plastics technology, etc.)

With eight partners on-site at the France Pavilion – ALSACE BIOVALLEY - BCI - LILLE EURASANTE – CCI FRANCHE COMTE – CCI LIMOGES - MADEELI – I-CARE – MEDICEN - TECHNOPOLE TBS – SYNERGIA (Caen La Mer) and SUD DE FRANCE, come and meet the French exhibitors representing this growing industry.

Source: http://www.youbuyfrance.com/uk/