On November 16, the medical trade fair Medica 2022 and the medical technology supplier trade fair Compamed 2022 came to an end in Düsseldorf. The trade fairs recorded an increase in bookings from exhibiting companies and a significant rise in the number of trade visitors attending.
More than 81,000 visitors from the various sectors of the global healthcare industry came to Düsseldorf for this year's medical trade fair. In total, there were 5,000 participants from 70 nations and a wide range of innovations for modern outpatient and clinical care - including all the components, products and processes involved in their development and manufacture. The proportion of international trade visitors was three quarters, with trade visitors from South Korea, the USA and visitor groups from India and North African countries also represented in large numbers, in addition to European countries.
One of the top decision-makers who visited Medica 2022 was the German Federal Minister of Health, Prof. Dr. Karl Lauterbach. He took part in the opening event of the 45th German Hospital Conference and outlined the key points of the planned hospital reform. Also among the Medica guests were H.E. Prof. Ron Prosor, Ambassador of Israel, Mona Neubaur, Minister of Economic Affairs of North Rhine-Westphalia and, among others, the Consuls General of Japan and the USA, Setsuko Kawahara and Pauline Kao. In a dynamically changing market environment, medical technology companies are relying more than ever on cooperation - both in terms of production and in relation to marketing, sales and after-sales services - in order to be able to reliably offer tailor-made solutions for hospitals and the outpatient sector across national borders. The Medica Tech Forum offered itself as a platform for expanding contacts and finding partners for joint projects. The forum, jointly organized by the industry association Spectaris and Medical Mountains, offered an overview of currently particularly relevant medical technology topics. The sessions on aspects of product approval, certification issues and special market features relating to selected national markets such as the UK, Norway and China were very well received by the Medica audience.
To summarize the wealth of innovations presented and the topics discussed intensively in the specialist forums and accompanying conferences, it can be said that Corona remains a "perennial topic". Not least as a result, the digitalization of healthcare has become an even greater focus in almost all countries. And a tense personnel and cost situation among service providers is driving product development towards innovative solutions for smart processes. In the context of the coronavirus pandemic and the increasing outpatient nature of healthcare, products and services for point-of-care, i.e. diagnostics and treatment close to the patient, remain in high demand. Under the title "Covid-19: The Challenge Remains", the Medica Labmed Forum provided a fitting medical perspective and bridged the gap in terms of content with a session. The current challenges posed by ever new virus variants and the need to adapt both diagnostics and therapy (keyword: vaccine development) accordingly were discussed. The detection of new virus variants, immunity testing using antibody and T-cell tests and approaches to developing a universal Covid-19 vaccine were among the focal points of the contributions.
The "booster" for the digitalization of the healthcare sector and the demand for smart processes will benefit the (digitally driven) start-up scene. During the days of the trade fair, they were offered a wide range of options to present themselves. These included the Medica Connected Healthcare Forum as a dialog platform on digital healthcare trends with integrated pitch competitions especially for start-ups, as well as the Medica Start-up Park as a large joint stand with around 40 participants once again. The competition for the 11th Medica Start-up Competition, which focuses on outstanding digital innovations every year, was won by the start-up Idoven from Spain in the final pitch with a cloud-based, AI-supported platform for ECG analysis. The spectrum of other innovations presented by start-ups at Medica 2022 ranged from a palm-sized system for wireless monitoring of unborn babies and ultrasound heads that are particularly contour-adaptable to numerous other solutions based on artificial intelligence (AI), such as the precise diagnosis of neurocognitive disorders based on eye movements or the effort-reduced creation of electronic medical records.
In terms of reducing the burden on staff, researchers at Fraunhofer IPA presented a system at Medica 2022 for patient anamnesis during admission to clinics, which will no longer require the direct presence of medical staff. Sophisticated sensor technology ensures the automatic recording of vital data, while an avatar assists in interviewing the patient.
Around 700 companies were represented at Compamed - the supplier trade fair for medical technology - and exhibited in Halls 8a and 8b. They offer the medical technology industry a complete range of high-performance components and digitalized solutions, such as sensors, batteries, chips, biocompatible yet ultra-dense coatings and wireless modules for mobile diagnostic devices (including wearables), implants and laboratory equipment. Microfluidics is currently very much in vogue and was therefore a topic in two well-attended program sessions at the Compamed High-tech Forum of the IVAM trade association. The handling of liquids in the smallest of spaces is important for laboratory medical test procedures and has become a permanent focus as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Further information at www.medica.de and www.compamed.de
