Planning is already running at full blast for the MEDICA 2015 and COMPAMED 2015 being held in parallel. In addition, what applies to the Messe Düsseldorf MEDICA team and the teams of partners with regard to devising the subject matter for the accompanying conferences and the forums integrated into specialist trade fair will also apply to the many expected exhibitors and visitors at the MEDICA and the COMPAMED. This is because a new set of dates has to be marked on the calendar for the world’s largest medical trade fair, MEDICA, and the leading international trade fair for suppliers of the medical technology industry, the COMPAMED. From this year on, both events will run in Düsseldorf of the course of four days in parallel to each other, meaning on the new weekdays from Monday to Thursdays, this year from 16 to 19 November.
Joachim Schäfer, managing director of Messe Düsseldorf explained:
This significant change is the result of the intensive evaluation of exhibitor and visitor surveys as well as coordination with industry associations. Focusing on the “normal” working days of the week – instead of Wednesday to Saturday as was the case up until now – will make it possible to provide better guest distribution for the professional audience across the entire running time in the future, enabling exhibitor presentations as well as their stand infrastructure to be utilised in a more consistent manner
A central strength of the MEDICA is that it not only deals with solutions for individual medical specialist disciplines at a single place and a single time, but for the complete “workflow” of patient treatment. This year, once again, 4,800 exhibitors from more than 60 nations will use the MEDICA in order to present the 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.
For example, a noticeable increase in booking with regard to the exhibition space has been recorded from the USA, China, the Netherlands, France, Spain, South Korea, and Turkey or also from Saudi Arabia.
Clearly structured according to hall, focuses of the MEDICA trade fair include: Electromedicine/medical technology (more than 2,500 exhibitors), laboratory technology/diagnostics, physiotherapy/orthopaedic technology, commodities and consumables, information and communication technology, medical furniture and specialist furnishings for hospitals and doctors’ offices.
Conferences closely associated with the trade fair
The high degree of internationality on the provider side is reflected on the visitor side at the MEDICA. From the almost 130,000 specialist visitors that visited the MEDICA in the previous year, more than every second was an international visitors (from a total of around 120 nations). In recent years, to also meet the needs of the professional public in the future, the programme of the accompanying conferences and the forms integrated into the trade fair have been radically restructured and aligned at a more international level with many highlights in the English language.
Also this year again, the MEDICA EDUCATION CONFERENCE that was first organised in 2014 by the Germany Society for Internal Medicine (DGIM), is offering an impressive interdisciplinary program. Key topics for the individual conference days provide for a clearly arranged content-related profile. Going by the conference motto “Science Meets Medical Technology”, the four daily topics have been selected in such a way that they result in a close integration with the trade fairs’s medical technological innovations. Key topics at this year’s MEDICA EDUCATION CONFERENCE include: 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).
Custom-made offers for trends and innovations
With reference to the conference programme, being oriented toward those interested, belonging to important target groups, MEDICA is also ensuring that what is being further offered will also be linked to the topics of the trade fair. An example of this includes the 38th German Hospital Day, a leading event for the directors and management of German hospitals that, in addition to current political topics, sheds light on the topic of “practical issues”, e.g. aspects of hospital IT and human resource management. This year, the German Hospital Day will be complemented by the European Hospital Conference, which takes place every two years, being a gathering for top decision-makers from European hospitals for the purpose of exchanging their expertise.
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 be noted. It has to do with conferences held in the English language that 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. This is because modern performance diagnostics can make use of technology that is more compact and used in close contact with the body. So-called wearables and smartwatches are on the rise. Sensors detect a great variety of vital signs that could be of relevance for sports medicine specialists providing treatment from a therapeutic point of view. Those making a round in hall 15 at the MEDICA will, for example, be quite convinced that the uncomfortable chest harness for collecting body parameters will soon already be obsolete in light of the exhibitor presentations at the Wearable Technologies Show. Heart rate, oxygen saturation or body temperature can also be determined using fine sensors integrated into textiles, ear clips or plug-in attachments for smartphones.
The MEDICA PHYSIO CONFERENCE organised by the Thieme Publishing House is also dedicated to trend topics. With its treatment oriented presentations, it is directed toward the professional scene of physiotherapists, sports medicine specialists and orthopaedists and is taking place this year on 18 + 19 November / Congress Center Düsseldorf South).
Forums directly at the trade fair
In addition to the MEDICA conference programme, the numerous forums integrated directly into the trade fair convey significant developments. In hall 15, these respectively include the MEDICA HEALTH IT FORUM (innovations in telemedicine) and the MEDICA CONNECTED HEALTHCARE FORUM (solutions for the digital networking of healthcare players + the MEDICA App Competition) as well as the MEDICA TECH FORUM (medical technology industry innovations as well as political, economic and legal framework conditions for the field of high-tech medicine/hall 12). Furthermore, a great deal of significance has been given to the MEDICA ECON FORUM (hall 15), jointly initiated by Messe Düsseldorf and the "Techniker Krankenkasse" (TK), a German health insurance company, on issues of benefit assessment and funding innovation, primarily from the perspective of patients and cost bearers.
COMPAMED – suppliers as innovation drivers
Modern diagnostic and therapeutic procedures do not only require a high level of product development expertise on the part of the medical technology industry, but also on the part of its suppliers that are being presented as part of the COMPAMED 2015. From 16 to 19 November, in halls 8a and 8b, more than 700 exhibitors are again presenting their technological solutions and service offers for various requirements profiles and tasks of medical technology providers – from new materials, components, primary products, packaging and services such as spare parts handling for example all the way to complete custom manufacturing. Here, microsystem technology solutions for mobile diagnosis, monitoring, and therapy systems are particularly trendy, whereby currently the field of optical processes is particularly being developed on a dynamic level. For example, microcomponents for minimally invasive diagnostics must be mentioned or also optical components for use with laboratory equipment.
This unique combination allows MEDICA and COMPAMED to represent the entire process chain and the full range of medical products, devices, and instruments. Together, they fill the whole Düsseldorf trade fair complex (19 halls). As in previous years, it is possible to visit both events with a single ticket.
Online information: http://www.medica.de and http://www.compamed.de
MEDICA + COMPAMED dates: 16 – 19 November 2015
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