MEDICA 2020: The Coronavirus has grabbed the world’s attention and increased the focus on good healthcare and modern equipment

Wolfram Diener

Globally, no sector has been placed under the magnifying glass more than the healthcare sector due to the Corona pandemic. Hospitals, outpatient clinics, practice-based physicians and care facilities have experienced a sudden increased demand for medical and laboratory technology, a wide variety of medical products, digital health applications and, most of all, personal protective equipment. Under these conditions, the plans for the world’s biggest medical trade fair MEDICA 2020 and the number one trade fair for suppliers of the medical technology industry, COMPAMED 2020, held in parallel, are revving up to full throttle. Both events will take place from 16 to 19 November in Düsseldorf – closely interlinked with extensive digital offers and services.

“Despite the planning challenges for both ourselves and our customers, we are still expecting huge participation in MEDICA and COMPAMED. This underscores the urgent need for a strong market platform to steer supply and demand internationally”, explains Wolfram Diener, Operative Managing Director at Messe Düsseldorf. “The stimulus that these events elicit is massively important for the industry. A stage has been created so that the companies can present their latest products and services. Professional visitors from all areas of the healthcare industry need direction and a comprehensive overview of reliable, quickly available supplier options and business partner alternatives; this is the case now more than ever,” continues Wolfram Diener.

No other event in the world looks at the complete needs of the outpatient and inpatient care sectors with as much differentiation as ours. MEDICA and its focal segments aren’t afraid to take on this challenge: Medical technology and electromedicine, commodities and consumables, laboratory technology and diagnostics, physiotherapy and orthopaedic technology and Health IT/information and communication technology.

The right formats for matchmaking service providers

The programme plan for MEDICA 2020 and COMPAMED 2020 has created a space to accommodate the increased demand for an effective matchmaking service from service providers, who specifically want to match with other manufacturers and service providers across different countries, throughout the entire value-added chain and including the supplier sector.

In particular, we can expect cooperations between start-ups and bigger market players to become more and more significant in the future. This applies, for example, to the mobile digital healthcare solutions that are trending at the moment, which have been cornerstones for providing quick and contactless (as far as possible) care during the Corona pandemic and will surely continue to grow in significance. “When a creative product idea from a start-up is combined with expertise in how to procure approvals and marketing power of a large supplier, we have a win-win situation for both sides. This is why the MEDICA START-UP PARK and the pitching formats of our theme forums integrated into the trade fair halls have met with resounding approval. This is the place that brings business partners together and gets joint projects off the ground”, states Dr. Claudio Bucchi, Senior Project Manager and Trend Scout for the MEDICA Team at Messe Düsseldorf.  

Further forums integrated into the theme segments of the trade fair are the MEDICA HEALTH IT FORUM, the MEDICA TECH FORUM, the MEDICA LABMED FORUM as well as the MEDICA ECON FORUM.

The MEDICA conference programme is oriented towards the interests of important target groups within the healthcare industry and will also reflect the trending themes in the market in terms of its content, taking the impact of the relevant Covid-19 developments into consideration. The 43rd German Hospital Conference, as the leading event for the directors and management teams of German hospitals, and, in addition, two English-speaking conferences which address an international audience should be mentioned here: DiMiMED, the Conference on Disaster and Military Medicine, and the MEDICA MEDICINE + SPORTS CONFERENCE for the who’s who of sports medicine and science.

An optimistic mood among suppliers at COMPAMED

Within the scope of COMPAMED 2020, suppliers of the medical technology industry are showcasing themselves along with their development and manufacturing expertise. Despite the significant ramifications that Covid-19 has had on the global economy, on the whole they believe that the future is bright. According to a member survey carried out by the IVAM Association for Microtechnology, 90% of the companies believe that there will be opportunities for new applications of their technology in medical technology and the healthcare industry following the pandemic. This is because in critical situations such as the one we’re currently in, sensors for ventilation equipment and medical measuring technology are needed, to give two examples, in addition to miniaturised and mobile systems for fast diagnostics, according to the IVAM. Miniaturised components and procedures in digitalisation are also trending currently. They are the key to ultra-precision manufacturing and also build the foundations for the lightweight, wearable and linked devices that are experiencing even greater demand than before during the Corona period.

MEDICA and COMPAMED brought in a total of 121,369 visitors and over 6,000 exhibitors in 2019.