20 - 23 November 2013, Düsseldorf, Germany.The global health market is growing annually by about six per cent. The drivers of this development are an ageing society in many countries, in others a strong population growth, technical advancement and above all, the increased purchasing power all over the world. Against this background, the health markets in the majority of countries are developing faster than the gross domestic product. If this trend remains unchanged, the global health market will increase from well over 5 trillion euro at present to about 15 trillion euro by 2030. These figures from the study "Weltweite Gesundheitswirtschaft - Chancen für Deutschland" (Worldwide healthcare sector - opportunities for Germany), which was carried out by the business consultancy Roland Berger (on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology), explain why even providers of medical technology and their suppliers can assume positive market prospects in the medium and long term, despite a somewhat moderate trend in demand at present as a result of the financial crisis.
Irrespective of an overall growing demand for medical care and the associated medical devices and medical technologies, the structure of the demand is gradually changing. It differs in relation to countries, in some cases considerably with regard to the type of sought-after products and systems. As a consequence of an increasing density of provision i.e. a rising number of outpatient medical care units and clinics, in many newly industrialised countries there is a strong demand for basic medical equipment in terms of a broad-ranging primary health care. The focus on innovation is low by comparison. In the "traditional" markets, for example in the major industrial countries in Europe, North America and Japan, the cost pressure in the healthcare systems is rising. This does admittedly diminish the demand. However, growth impulses boosted by the private healthcare market and the focus on innovation, are higher overall (see Hamburg Institute of International Economics study / HSH Nordbank).
The global market appears to be equally complex with regard to the choice of products. Once considered to be low-price providers, major corporations from China, for instance, are taking on the global competition with the market-dominating "big players" and have considerably improved the quality of their products and their range of services. And even companies from emerging newly industrialised countries such as India, Malaysia and Thailand no longer just supply their domestic markets. Whether it be catheters, latex gloves or wound treatment products - in highly price-orientated market sectors they also have outlets in clinics in Europe or America.
These indicators of market development explain why MEDICA in Düsseldorf, as the largest and leading medical trade fair worldwide, has been able to continually build on its position as an influential platform for transnational business, information and expert exchange. The high level of internationality among exhibitors and visitors is testament to this. Almost three quarters of the more than 4,500 exhibitors at MEDICA 2012 were international participations. At the same time more than one in two of the total of 130,600 trade visitors came from outside Germany to the city on the Rhine.
As sophisticated as the market seems to be in its range of products and demand, the motivation of the exhibitors and visitors to follow the MEDICA motto "Be part of the No. 1" is just as diverse. For some exhibitors it is primarily about the access to the high-volume markets of Europe, other companies by contrast use the international visitor contacts at MEDICA to strengthen their global sales and distribution.
It also helps the exhibitors that the target-group specific marketing campaign accelerated in recent years has come to fruition with regards to MEDICA's visitors. In practice this means that increasingly more top decision-makers are among the visitors and incidentally, also increasingly more decision-makers from the commercial sector and medical insurance companies.
Concentration of purchasing power
For this reason MEDICA reflects a general trend, which will certainly be consolidated in the years ahead on the basis of the structural changes in the healthcare systems of most countries: the purchasing power is concentrated in the clinic associations and clinic groups which are becoming increasingly larger. Whoever is making the decisions in these cases, irrespective of whether they come from the medical sector or management, has a particular responsibility even just based on the total volume of the investments being made.
Correspondingly high, now at 93 per cent, is the proportion of decision-makers at MEDICA, with more than 3,000 clinic directors that came to MEDICA 2012. A very high number if you think that in Germany alone there are barely more than 2,000 clinics, a third of which are owned by (major) private clinic chains.
What does this development of the changed decision-making structures mean for MEDICA?
Even though MEDICA looks back on a history of more than 40 years of successful events and takes place every year, MEDICA one year is never the same as MEDICA the following year. Product ranges in the trade fair and the accompanying congresses are continually revised and adapted to visitors' changed requirements. It is only in this way that the right target groups can be directed to the exhibitors.
Once again, for MEDICA 2013, which will take place from 20 to 23 November in Düsseldorf, numerous ideas will be put "into action".
Relaunching the congress programme
For example, MEDICA's congress programme is being repositioned. The further development of the programme of the congress allows for a sharper subject profile, an even closer link to the MEDICA trade fair topics and the development of the international part of the programme. This is why it has been renamed "MEDICA Conferences & Forums".
The programme focus areas have been defined by a panel consisting of renowned experts. Under the title MEDICA EDUCATION CONFERENCE, courses with high levels of participation in previous years form the basis of the focal areas, for example, on general medical topics including practical courses using the devices, which remain certified with CME points for continuous medical education. In addition there are seminars on interdisciplinary topics, which are highly relevant across disciplines such as emergency medicine, gender-specific and personalised medicine.
Meanwhile, English-language programme components already this year are a series of talks on current issues with regard to individualised medicine, an international conference on disaster and military medicine, and a premium event for the international sports medicine specialist field. This conference will cover topics ranging from preventative approaches in sports medicine to therapeutic measures, taking into account the use of modern electromedical devices.
German Hospital Conference & European Hospital Conference
An integral component of MEDICA 2013 is the 36th German Hospital Conference as the leading information and communication platform for all decision-makers from clinics in Germany. At the same time about 150-170 top decision-makers from Europe's hospitals are expected on 20 November 2013 at the second EUROPEAN HOSPITAL CONFERENCE (EHC) in Düsseldorf. The EHC takes place every two years. This year the focus is on the European patients' directive and liability issues in connection with medical malpractice.
Forums and trade fair
As a further programme component of MEDICA Conferences & Forums, the forums that are integrated in the trade fair also address the significant trends. These include MEDICA HEALTH IT FORUM (IT trends, telemedicine/hall 15) and MEDICA TECH FORUM (developments in the field of high-tech medicine) with English-language talks in each case, MEDICA PHYSIO FORUM (physiotherapy methods/hall 4) and MEDICA ECON FORUM, which was successfully initiated in 2012 by the Messe Düsseldorf and the "Techniker Krankenkasse" (TK, a German health insurance company), on issues of benefit assessment and funding innovation.
The aforementioned examples show that the Messe Düsseldorf team, in cooperation with global partners, is continuously working on maintaining and expanding the appeal of MEDICA for exhibitors and visitors.
The point is to boost discussion between the users and the industry, to search for solutions to the main issues of healthcare provision at an international level.
In 2012 MEDICA, as the world's largest medical trade fair, counted 4,554 exhibitors from more than 60 countries and 130,600 trade visitors. Based on the course of exhibitor registrations, a comparably good participation is envisaged. As in previous years, after Germany, the greatest shares of floor space have been booked by exhibitors from Italy, China, the USA, Great Britain and France. Particularly strong growth is recorded from Poland (plus 36 per cent, now: 1,200 m²), Turkey (plus 23.5 per cent at 3,600 m²) and also from South Korea (plus 16 per cent at 3,455 m²).
In mid November at MEDICA 2013, the providers will again be showcasing the entire spectrum of new products for a qualitatively good and simultaneously efficient medical provision in clinics and the outpatient sector, from medical technology and electromedicine, laboratory technology, physiotherapy products and commodities to health IT.
Interconnected, integrated, compact and increasingly efficient
With regard to the product developments in the field of medical technology, the "mega trends" (computerisation, molecularisation and miniaturisation) which were identified for the future by a survey of experts by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as early as 2005, and confirmed time and again by the relevant industry associations, have not lost any of their strength in past years, which could be impressively tracked at each MEDICA and will also characterise MEDICA 2013.
Consequently the use of IT in the healthcare sector continues to progress. But the growth impulses are not based primarily on hospital information systems or administration software, but on the integration of IT in the most diverse application disciplines. This is the strength of MEDICA, that it does not address health IT in isolation, but demonstrates the relevant links. Examples of this are, for instance, solutions for computer-based microscopy and laboratory automation (in the field of laboratory technology), computer-based surgery or anaesthesia and the interconnection of medical imaging (in the field of medical technology/electromedicine), to wireless solutions for real-time monitoring of patients and compact telemedicine applications for the remote use of medical practice and clinic (field of health IT).
The current developments in the field of digital operating theatre integration are also particularly fascinating to observe. Where many different devices for imaging, intervention, monitoring of vital parameters or even the documentation and video transmission are being used, it is necessary to simplify the handling using standard and central control units and to optimally interconnect the devices. In this connection it is interesting to see attempts to replace proprietary interconnection interfaces, which restrict the combination of groups of devices in operating theatres in relation to manufacturer, with open "plug & play" standards. From the perspective of clinic operators, this would increase the flexibility and efficiency of the devices used. One noteworthy project is the "smartOR" collaborative project, which is sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi).
Molecular medicine findings meanwhile form the basis for the unchanged rapid developments in the field of biomarker tests. They are effectively the basis for the much-cited personalised medicine. Irrespective of whether it is a question of diagnosing viral infections or cancers, the number of biomarkers identified as indicators of disease is ever greater and for this reason there are more and more tests available for the laboratory medicine analysis devices. Hundreds of biomarkers are known already. Their number will certainly increase even more in the years ahead just as the devices with which they are verified will become more compact. Consequently the diagnosis can then, in many cases, be made cost-effectively and easily where the results are needed - in the direct vicinity of where patients are being treated, avoiding the need to transport samples to central laboratories.
As far as the advancing miniaturisation in medical technology is concerned, this is illustrated wonderfully by the cooperation of MEDICA with COMPAMED, the international leading market platform of suppliers for the medical technology industry (20-22 November 2013/halls 8a and 8b), An example of this is developments in the field of implantation medicine.
The doctors' objective is to be able to check the correct fit of implants (e.g. hip joints) as easily as possible. Once again it is the suppliers in cooperation with researchers, that have suitable ideas on hand. For example, acceleration sensors are integrated in "intelligent" prostheses, which record if an implant is fitted too loosely and transmit relevant signals via an RFID interface to a controller unit.
No less fascinating are current projects in the field of neuroprosthetics (including those addressed in the 7th COMPAMED Spring Convention). The aim is to re-establish movement after serious spinal injuries or, for instance, to effectively alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Achieving these neuroprostheses necessitates pursuing new solution paths which are based on microtechnological and microelectronic methods. These include in particular flexible, implantable multi-electrodes and microprocessor-controlled neuroprostheses. These need to be virtually all-rounders. Since, with regard to their field of application, they have to combine both wireless energy and signal transmission and combine highly developed possibilities of neurostimulation and neuronal recording and evaluation.
The aforementioned examples show that whoever wishes to remain up to date on what is currently affecting the medical technology field and how the medical technology industry in collaboration with its suppliers is driving medical advancement in terms of qualitatively good and cost-effective patient care, a visit to MEDICA 2013 (about 4,500 exhibitors) and COMPAMED 2013 (about 650 exhibitors) is a must.
As was the case with previous years, only one ticket is needed to visit both events, which together are utilising all 19 halls of the Düsseldorf's exhibition grounds to capacity.