MEDICA AND COMPAMED 2024 TO HIGHLIGHT HEALTHCARE TRENDS WITH MANY INNOVATIONS, EXCITING FORMATS AND VIPs

German Hospital Conference to be held at center of the trade fair for first time

  Christian Grosser, Director Health & Medical Technologies, is looking forward to the medical trade fairs to get underway: “From next Monday to Thursday, we will once again be welcoming visiting professionals from all fields of the international healthcare industry to MEDICA and COMPAMED 2024. The trade fairs will offer an enormous variety of innovations and exciting program formats with a host of highlights, innovations and top-class speakers.” From November 11 - 14, 5,800 exhibitors from 72 countries will fill the entire hall space on the fairgrounds in Düsseldorf, Germany. Their innovations will highlight both events as globally unique information and business platforms serving the entire medical equipment supply chain – including manufacturing and development.

  An important new change this year will be the themed hall selections in the MEDICA Med Tech & Devices and Digital Health areas, known as “spheres”, with a new location for the accompanying German Hospital Day. The leading event for the top management of German hospitals was previously held in the Congress Center Düsseldorf and will now take place in the middle of the trade fair, in Hall 12. At the start of the program, the North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of Health Karl-Josef Laumann will address the delegates, focusing in particular on the changes in the German hospital landscape as a results from the upcoming hospital reform. Companies exhibiting innovations for hospital equipment and operating theaters will be grouped around the event area.

  The world of experience Digital Health in Hall 13 also has some political relevance, such as the MEDICA ECON FORUM (health policy and economics in the context of digital transformation in healthcare). In addition, all the latest IT trends and digital innovations will be hot topics for discussion. This will be reflected in the program of events at the MEDICA HEALTH IT FORUM, the MEDICA INNOVATION FORUM (with the popular start-up pitches on Monday and Tuesday afternoons) as well as the Hospital of the Future special presentation (innovations around digital infrastructure in hospitals and data use as demonstrated by the example of intensive care), the Wearable Technologies Show (high-tech products worn on the body) and the MEDICA START-UP PARK (a central hub for networking with the digitally powered start-up scene).

Women leaders in healthcare: how to make it!
  The MEDICA INNOVATION FORUM will also highlight “Women Power” on the stage. “Together we thrive” is the title of the panel discussion on Tuesday afternoon. It will feature women who have been highly successful in the healthcare industry in various management positions, whether in large organizations or the dynamic start-up sector, making them ideal discussion partners with a wealth of experience. Among the panelists will be Hadas Bitran, Partner General Manager, Health AI (Microsoft Health and Life Sciences), Ayelén Fernández, Global Orthotics & Prosthetics Segment Manager (HP), Audrey A. Sherman, Division Scientist (Solventum; previously 3M Healthcare) and Nina Wöss, Managing Partner (Female Founders).

All the year’s hot topics live on stage
  Other “hot topics” in the stage program of the accompanying forums and conferences at MEDICA 2024 will include current application examples for AI and robotics as well as assistance systems in day-to-day medical practice. Another area of focus will be the increasing connectivity in healthcare provision, specifically on innovations for the point of care: diagnostics and treatment in the immediate vicinity of patients (usually outpatients). This includes telemedicine applications
aimed at providing the best possible collaboration across sectors by all those involved in the treatment process. Another top issue at this year’s MEDICA will be the urgent shortage of skilled workers. This is having an impact on almost every company in the healthcare sector, leading them to look for solutions. These solutions will be discussed in a focused manner at the individual forums and conferences – for example, from the particular perspective of laboratory medicine at the MEDICA LABMED FORUM (in Hall 1).

Many new developments in five worlds of experience 
  At MEDICA 2024, there will be five spheres promising a wide variety of  innovations for the treatment of outpatients and clinical use. These include robotic applications to support highly complex neurosurgical brain interventions as well as orthopedic operations (including hip implants) as well as a new drive system that can be fitted into most hospital beds. The drive system works like that of an e-bike and significantly eases the workload for staff at healthcare facilities during patient transport. Another new solution on show will be a medically certified smartwatch for easy measurement of wrist blood pressure. The spheres at the trade fair are: 
Lab & Diagnostics, Med Tech & Devices, Disposables, Physio Tech and Digital Health.

Pop-up theme: Automotive Health – when the car replaces the doctor
  Christian Grosser addresses a topic that is highly relevant for many visit group: “What is most memorable about trade fair visits are things that we discover spontaneously. That is why this year, as a pop-up novelty, we and the Innovation Institute have created the Automotive Health special exhibition area.” Numerous sensors and functions can already be integrated into cars to enable healthy (and therefore safe) driving. Fatigue detection systems already installed in cars are just one example. Many more functionalities are possible in order to examine health-relevant data measured from drivers and to identify risk factors that could result in emergencies and potentially serious accidents. At the special exhibition area in Hall 12, the Innovation Institute will demonstrate its proven expertise in the field, exhibiting vehicles such as the VW ID.4, the VW Tiguan and a vintage Melkus sports car as well as a racing simulator. The institute’s key customers include Audi, Mercedes, Porsche and Volkswagen.

  Halls 8a and 8b will also offer special development expertise. At COMPAMED 2024, 750 supplier organizations will also exhibit in five worlds spheres: Manufacturing & Devices (e.g., components, parts, manufacturing processes), Services & Advice (e.g., research, development, services), Materials (e.g., plastics, glass, ceramics, metals, composite materials, adhesives, packaging), Micro Tech (such as microcomponents and microfluidics) as well as IT in Tech (software development and maintenance for medical technology)

  Offering a specialized program of accompanying events, the COMPAMED HIGH-TECH FORUM and COMPAMED SUPPLIERS FORUM  will address leading topics within the supplier sector such as AI, robotics and automation, microtechnology developments and material innovations.

Updates, insights and an AI-based buddy for a successful visit
  There is not only news in the exhibition halls. The new video podcast 'Trade Talk Today' from Messe Düsseldorf (available on the homepage of the trade shows websites) will also provide important daily updates on innovations and highlights of the events. “Movers and shakers” will offer their insights and classify industry trends.

  The new  “MEDICA AI  Buddy” has already been up and running before the start of the trade fairs: As a virtual assistant for all potential and registered attendees it helps to plan a particularly effective trade fair visit. The AI Buddy is on the shows’ websites and also integrated into the MEDICA app.

  Last year, MEDICA and COMPAMED attracted 83,000 visiting professionals from more than 160 countries.

  For further information, contact Messe Düsseldorf North America; Telephone: (312) 781-5180; E-mail: info@mdna.com; Visit www.medica-tradefair.com and www.compamed-tradefair.com  and www.mdna.com.