"Meet Health. Future. People." - this is the campaign motto with which MEDICA will launch into the future in the new trade fair year 2025. The leading international trade fair for the healthcare and medical technology industries confirmed how aptly chosen the motto is with the successful MEDICA 2024 and the parallel supplier trade fair No. 1, COMPAMED 2024.

"The best options for global networking were offered as well as an incredible number of pioneering innovations and program highlights at the absolute top level. MEDICA is unique in its global appeal," says Marius Berlemann, Managing Director of Messe Düsseldorf, impressed by the events at the exhibition stands and program stages. A total of 5,800 exhibiting companies from 72 nations presented their expertise to around 80,000 trade visitors (from 165 countries) from November 11 to 14 and provided an impressive overview of modern healthcare solutions for outpatient and inpatient care - unique worldwide, taking into account the entire value chain of medical technology and thus also technically sophisticated supplier products. With a high decision-maker rate and high satisfaction levels, both events seamlessly follow on from the excellent results of previous years.

‍More than 90 percent of the trade visitors who came have decision-making authority and more than 90 percent of the trade visitors are satisfied with their participation in the event.

"This is boosting our exhibitors' business. Overall, we can see from the course of the trade fair that the cross-border competition for medical technology innovation leadership is gaining momentum and, as in other sectors, companies from Asia are also heavily involved. In addition to the German participation and the other country and region participations from Europe, China, South Korea, India and of course Japan and Taiwan were again strongly represented with top new products. The large participation from the USA is particularly pleasing, with its diverse joint stands, including those from numerous federal states, accounting for almost 10 percent of the exhibitors," explains Christian Grosser, Director of Health & Medical Technologies at Messe Düsseldorf.

Particularly for the many newcomers taking part in MEDICA and COMPAMED, for small and medium-sized companies and for highly focused niche players, the high degree of internationality on the part of both exhibitors and visitors proved once again to be a decisive success factor in the search for partnerships for development, contract manufacturing or sales. "MEDICA brings thousands of industry experts from all over the world together every year. It is the ideal platform to discover the latest advances and developments in the healthcare sector and to make valuable contacts," says Maxine Wang, Managing Director of Bricon GmbH, delighted with the inspiring global exchange during the trade fair days. The company specializes in the development, manufacture and worldwide distribution of spinal implants.

Hospital Day with strong impulses for the trade fair business

‍For more than half a century, MEDICA has been characterized by its ability to surprise again and again with innovations, with program updates that are in tune with the times and in the sense of an ideal bridge between knowledge transfer and technical discussion and the relevant exhibitor innovations.

An important innovation this year was the thematically adapted hall allocation in the MEDICA experience worlds "Med Tech & Devices" and "Digital Health" (Halls 12 and 13) with a new location for the accompanying German Hospital Day. The leading event for the top management of German hospitals moved into the center of the trade fair for the first time, in Hall 12. At the much-noticed start of the 47th German Hospital Day, Federal Health Minister Prof. Dr. Karl Lauterbach (connected live) and North Rhine-Westphalia Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann , among others, spoke to the delegates and focused in particular on the changes in the German hospital landscape as a result of the impending hospital reform.

Around the event area, exhibitors who were particularly relevant to the clinical decision-making audience presented innovations for hospital equipment and operating rooms. This was a perfect match and a strong boost for the trade fair business, and not just for LINAK. Together with TENTE, LINAK presented a new drive system that can be integrated into most hospital beds. It works on the "e-bike principle" and offers hospital staff noticeable relief when transporting patients. "MEDICA offered an excellent opportunity to present our new product, which will revolutionize the care sector. We were able to appeal to medical staff, hospital management, developers and health politicians alike," explains LINAK Managing Director Christoph Messing.

‍Exciting sessions & specials

‍In the neighboring MEDICA experience world "Digital Health", in addition to the exhibitors' offerings, a lot of stage programming (MEDICA HEALTH IT FORUM, MEDICA ECON FORUM and MEDICA INNOVATION FORUM) as well as specials such as the MEDICA START-UP PARK (with a record participation of 60 start-ups) or the Wearables Technologies Show ensured excitement and a stir. The ` Hospital of the Future´ is still quite new in the MEDICA program . The special show started last year and has now been continued with a focus on digital networking and cooperation via telemedicine in hospital networks. The Korea Medical Device Association (KMDA) was persuaded to collaborate and showed digital innovations for rapid patient diagnostics in hospitals in a separate zone, where AI-based software is also used. In addition to the popular start-up competitions, the "Women Leaders in Healthcare" session on the second day of the MEDICA INNOVATION FORUM, which is now tailored to the entire range of digital innovations, was one of the absolute highlights. Participants included Hadas Bitran from Microsoft, Ayelén Fernández from HP, Audrey Sherman from Solventum and Nina Wöss from Female Founders. They provided insights into their paths to success and into management positions and how they play a decisive role in shaping innovations and digital transformation in leadership in the still predominantly male-dominated medical technology and health IT business.

In the final of the 13th MEDICA START-UP COMPETITION, Robeauté from France emerged as the winning team in the pitches on the forum stage with a newly developed microrobot for use in neurosurgical procedures. This year's Healthcare Innovation World Cup was won by the team from Samphire Neuroscience from Great Britain with a headset that acts on the brain's neural networks and thus helps to relieve menstrual pain and the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS).

New products on the "hot topics" of the year

Whether with program sessions of the forums and conferences or exhibitor presentations in the five experience worlds of the trade fair: In the context of the digital transformation of the healthcare system, MEDICA 2024 highlighted all of the "hot topics" of the year that are moving the healthcare industry, such as the growing importance of networked care models. AI-supported systems, robotics solutions and also concepts for dealing with the pressing shortage of skilled workers were in the foreground. The new products at the trade fair included, for example, robot applications to support highly complex neurosurgical interventions on the brain or for orthopedic operations (including hip implants). Also new: an AI-based tool for the automatic documentation of medical consultations, a whole range of rapid tests for patient-oriented diagnostics of a wide range of infectious diseases (e.g. gonorrhea or the "monkeypox" virus including the problematic mutation "Ib clade") and a medically certified smartwatch for easy blood pressure measurement on the wrist (from Huawei).

The special "Automotive Health" area (in Hall 12), which was designed in cooperation with the Innovation Institute from Frankfurt, also attracted a lot of attention with a high number of visitors on all days of the trade fair. Numerous sensors and functions can already be integrated into cars that enable healthy and therefore safe driving. The fatigue warning system that is already installed in many vehicles is just one example. Even more functionalities will be possible in the future to automatically identify risks for emergencies from drivers' vital data measurements and thus avoid potentially serious accidents. The Innovation Institute demonstrated its development know-how in the field using vehicles on display such as the VW ID.4 and also made technology tangible in a racing simulator.

COMPAMED: Platform of the "enablers"

In Halls 8a and 8b, 750 suppliers participating in COMPAMED 2024 impressively demonstrated their expertise in key technologies for use by the medical technology industry - from a wide range of high-tech components and microfluidic applications to special packaging solutions (taking cleanroom requirements into account). Two accompanying forums offered a wide range of programs on all days of the trade fair on current top topics in the supplier sector such as AI, robotics and automation, microtechnology developments and material innovations.

With a view to the growth markets in Asia, Messe Düsseldorf has been marketing its healthcare trade fairs in Singapore, Thailand, China and India, which have been successful for years, centrally from Singapore under the umbrella brand MEDICARE ASIA for a few weeks now.

The dates of the next MEDICA and COMPAMED as well as the international medical trade fairs under the umbrella of MEDICARE ASIA in 2025 are:

MEDICA in Düsseldorf: 17 – 20 November 2025
COMPAMED in Düsseldorf: 17 – 20 November 2025

MEDICAL FAIR INDIA in New Delhi: March 27th - 29th, 2025
MEDICAL FAIR CHINA in Suzhou: August 20th - 22nd, 2025
MEDICAL FAIR THAILAND in Bangkok: September 10th - 12th, 2025

All information about live events during the trade fair (including many comments from the exhibiting companies and the trade audience) is available online at: https://www.medica.de and https://www.compamed.de .

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