Putting the success of the two events in a nutshell, Wilhelm Niedergöker, Managing Director at Messe Düsseldorf, has concluded that despite the worldwide financial crisis MEDICA and COMPAMED have confirmed their leading rank as the World Forum for Medicine. With 137,000 registered visitors the four days of the trade fair (and three days of COMPAMED) including the accompanying MEDICA Congress and the Deutscher Krankenhaustag (German Hospital Congress) closed on par with the previous year's event. Just under 40% of visitors came from abroad. The 4,313 exhibitors participating at MEDICA presented the complete spectrum of new products, services and processes for use in doctors' surgeries and hospitals. In addition to those areas traditionally generating strong interest like medical device technology and electrical medicine, physiotherapeutic processes and medical IT, in particular, also triggered increasing demand. MEDICA, the 40th World Forum for Medicine, also lived up to its reputation of being the sector's foremost event for decision-makers. Almost 90% of trade visitors are involved in relevant investment decisions, at least in a consultative capacity, while 70% are decision-makers or at least have co-decision-making rights. In line with these findings in many interviews exhibitors reported that the audience displayed a high propensity to invest overall.
In addition to the improved networking of health care stakeholders brought about by relevant hardware and software applications, there is an increasing trend towards compact medical devices that are also suitable for mobile deployment. Showcased at MEDICA 2008 was the worlds smallest heart-lung machine, for example. The device even fits doctor-manned ambulances or helicopters.
Congress programme offered many highlights
The MEDICA Congress 2008 again provided a wide spectrum of continuous medical education and training in the form of training courses, seminars and discussion forums. The teaching modules on cardiovascular medicine as well as on other common conditions such as diabetes and dementia were particularly well received by participants. Dr. Julia Rautenstrauch, Secretary General of MEDICA - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Interdisziplinäre Medizin e. V., reported on other highlights attracting great visitor interest: "Also high in demand were the courses offering hands-on training with new medical devices, such as ultrasonic devices or microscopes. The seminars on palliative medicine, which were newly incorporated into the programme, were also very popular."
"Quality has its price!" was the overriding theme of the lectures, forums and seminars organised for the 31st German Hospital Congress. Almost 1,800 participants from hospitals and the field of health care policy obtained information on hospital-relevant issues here against the backdrop of the structural change currently occurring within the German health care system.
COMPAMED 2008 - suppliers showcased high-tech at its best
In parallel with MEDICA 519 exhibitors (2007: 450) also presented high-tech at its best at COMPAMED. In Halls 8a and 8b the upstream suppliers for medical manufacturing presented an impressive array of products and systems, such as new materials, components, packaging solutions or also complex processes in the field of micro technology.
There is a growing trend among suppliers to no longer just supply individual components but instead assume the role of a subcontractor for complete medical devices and products. In the field of materials there is a trend towards focusing even more on plastics in medical device engineering. Even today nearly 50% of all medical products manufactured worldwide are made of plastics - and figures are rising. Often these plastic components must bejoined with other components made of metal or ceramics. The relevant processes such as the latest laser-based joining technologies were also a theme covered at COMPAMED.
A focal theme of the talks delivered at the COMPAMED Forum in Hall 8a were all aspects of product development. The stands of the COMPAMED exhibitors were very well attended from the very beginning. 15,000 of the in total 137,000 trade visitors to MEDICA and COMPAMED were particularly interested in the ranges exhibited at the leading international trade fair for components, parts and raw materials for medical manufacturing.
The dates for the next MEDICA in Düsseldorf: 18 - 21 November 2009 (COMPAMED until 20/11/2009).
For further information, please visit:
http://www.medica.de and
http://www.compamed.de.
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