MEDICA: Success generates inventiveness
MEDICA in Düsseldorf has already claimed to be the world’s largest medical trade show. With more than 4,500 exhibitors and 130,000 professional visitors, it is undisputedly the leading market and information platform at an international level.
MEDICA reveals trends and innovations
A central strength of the MEDICA conference 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.
In reference to product developments, the advancements made in imaging technologies are impressive. Ultrasound devices of the best class offer a resolution and, at the same time, contrast with a penetration depth that would have seemed unimaginable just a few years ago. First systems even had built-in ‘anatomic intelligence’ consisting of an integrated database with anatomic structural models. In this way, better balance can be achieved if the transducer does not sit entirely right. Advantages also result in the creation of tomographies. As a result, an image quality is achieved that is suitable for the high requirements of cardiology.
As a further crucial trend in light of the innovations of the MEDICA exhibitors, the advancement of digitalisation and automation in the operating room can be accounted for. Altogether, information and medical technology continue merging with each other more and more. In high-tech operating rooms equipped with state of the art equipment, surgeons can fall back on a continuously growing number of systems that can facilitate intervention and patient monitoring and even be able to assist in the process. Find out more at presentations on ‘telemedicine and robotics’ and ‘interventional medicine’ at the Medica Education Conference.
However, attempts a few years ago may have been seen as failures when robots – in the case of hip operations for example – had guided the incision with the scalpel entirely on their own. In the process, the error rate was simply too high. Nevertheless, robotics have also paved their way into the field of medicine.
Marching on: ‘Wearables’
There is already a conceptual approach on how data glasses (‘Google Glass’) could optimally support surgeons in connecting to patient monitoring systems on the heads-up display, showing the most important vital signs.
Wearables, which include advancements in the field of sensor systems, material development, energy storage, and chip technology are motors for growth of this diagnosis and communication “all-rounder” used close to the body. The spectrum of current technology developments ranges from a chip-sensor band-aid to determining specific body parameters by connecting to a smartphone app, all the way to contact lenses that analyse blood sugar content, transferring this information using radio technology.
The Wearable Technologies Show communicates to MEDICA visitors a fine selection of wearables that possess a lot of market potential from a medical perspective. Apart from that, light will be shed on interesting aspects in even more detail at the Medica Medicine and Sports Conference. For example, many athletes use so-called ‘Activity Trackers’ that generate a plethora of data. Which data is relevant in terms of preventive or therapeutic measures from a medical standpoint? Which standards do the data have to comply with in order to be able to be used by doctors at all? The conference presentations and discussions are going to clarify such questions.
Suppliers as important pacesetters for innovations
Those that would like to stay up-to-date on what is currently trending in the professional scene and, above all, to what extent the suppliers in cooperation with the medical technical industry drive on medical advancement must visit COMPAMED 2014. Within the scope of the international leading platform for suppliers, around 700 exhibitors are presenting their technological and service solutions for use within the medical technological industry – from new materials, components, primary products, packaging and services, all the way to complex custom manufacturing.
- For more information and for tickets, visit www.medica.de
