MEDICA 2017 Welcomes 5000+ Exhibitors from 68 Countries

Over 5,000 exhibitors from 68 countries will be presenting new products at MEDICA, the world's leading medical trade fair taking place in Düsseldorf, Germany, from November 13 to 16, 2017. The event will also witness more and more health applications for smartphones, tablet PCs and ‘wearables’ – applications that are already enjoying increasing acceptance in the practical world – being presented, for instance, within the medically relevant contexts.

Additionally, expert professionals will be able to gain insights into all the developments during the presentations and talks at the MEDICA CONNECTED HEALTHCARE FORUM, during the MEDICA HEALTH IT FORUM, with the help of the exhibitors' new products as well as through the MEDICA App COMPETITION. For instance, artificial intelligence (AI), a topic that the healthcare sector is becoming increasingly preoccupied with, is on the agenda at this year's MEDICA HEALTH IT FORUM. At a press event ahead of MEDICA 2017, Prof Dr. Jochen Werner, Medical Director at the University Clinic of Essen, stated that he was convinced that AI would revolutionize the health sector. “Artificial intelligence is going to change the field of medicine forever. It is going to optimize and accelerate diagnostics and help to make treatments more personal. The work of physicians is going to change fundamentally,” said Prof. Werner, but emphasized that AI was not an end in itself, and would always have to be used to the benefit of patients and help physicians concentrate on their core tasks.

With the advancing medical applications based on virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), one interesting product on display at MEDICA 2017 will be the ‘3D-ARILE’ AR system for surgery that projects the precise location of lymph nodes on data goggles worn during surgical interventions, thus providing valuable assistance within the framework of tumor operations. Another interesting product that will be premièred at MEDICA this year is a piece of physiotherapy equipment that patients recline on while wearing a pair of VR goggles on to which a flight through a mountain landscape is projected as the unit makes the corresponding treatment-relevant movements.

With the aim of meeting the needs of the international professional public both now and in the future, the program for the accompanying conferences and the forums integrated into the trade fair have, over recent years, been radically restructured and have always been complemented by new formats dedicated to topical subjects. In view of the significant role played by creative start-ups in the digitization of healthcare and particularly in the field of wearables for vital diagnostics, a special ‘platform’ has been dedicated to them for the first time at MEDICA 2017 with the new MEDICA START-UP PARK. “The company founders and their small teams of developers are simply bubbling with ideas. What they need is a boost. That is why we will be matching them up at MEDICA with potential business partners, investors and sales partners from around the world,” said Dr Claudio Bucchi, the MEDICA team's trend scout and the project manager responsible for the MEDICA START-UP PARK.

Another new addition this year is the MEDICA LABMED FORUM, comprising four themed days offering a range of exciting presentations and panel discussions focusing on preventive screening tests for cancer, cardiac and circulatory conditions, innovative diabetes diagnostic tools, infection and migration.

One highlight of the conference program – the MEDICA ACADEMY – will be celebrating its launch at this year's MEDICA and will be dedicated to ‘blockbuster’ topics relevant to medical practice. These include updates on imaging procedures, modern surgical procedures and an ultrasound refresher course. The MEDICA ACADEMY will also discuss the ‘hand over of practices’ as a highly topical subject in a seminar aimed at both young physicians looking for practices and physicians wishing to pass on their practices.

The MEDICA ACADEMY will be complemented by other highlights from the MEDICA conference program that will span the arc between their content and the new products that are going to be presented at the trade fair. For example, the 40th German Hospital Conference, a leading event for the management of German hospitals, will cover topics ranging from political health questions through aspects of financing and controlling for hospital services to the presentation of best-practice projects for hospital IT. This year, the Hospital Conference will be once again complemented by the European Hospital Conference, which takes place every two years as a gathering that allows top decision-makers from European hospitals to swap notes.

Other highlights include the English-language DiMiMED conference for disaster and military medicine and the MEDICA MEDICINE + SPORTS CONFERENCE that will focus on prevention and sports medical treatment concepts.

The MEDICA PHYSIO CONFERENCE has been very popular with visitors and has been a firm fixture in the conference program for a while now. With its treatment-oriented presentations, it is directed towards the professional scene of physiotherapists, sports medicine specialists and orthopedists and takes place this year as well.

The COMPAMED trade fair for suppliers, which is held at the same time, will be held alongside the MEDICA 2017 trade fair on all four days. With more than 750 exhibitors, it is the driving force and internationally leading market platform for suppliers to the medical technology industry.

A key strength of MEDICA is that it deals not just with solutions for individual medical specialist disciplines, but also offers solutions for the complete workflow of patient treatment in one place at one time. The MEDICA trade fair focuses on electromedicine / medical technology, laboratory technology / diagnostics, physiotherapy / orthopedic technology, commodities and consumables, information and communications technology, medical furniture and specialist furnishings for hospitals and practices.