The ABHI UK pavilion at Medica: Why healthtech will be a key focus
Health technology (healthtech) is a key partner to healthcare services around the world. It enables improved efficiencies and effectiveness across the hospital setting, with investment in the latest devices, digitisation and diagnostic technologies delivering significant benefits to patient care, cutting waiting times and alleviating workforce burdens.
Representing the industry in the UK is the Association of British Healthtech Industries (ABHI). Its role as a membership body is to support the healthtech community to save and enhance lives. With 300 members, including both multinationals and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), its companies provide a range of products and services into the healthcare system, from syringes and wound dressings, to surgical robots and digitally enhanced technologies.
MEDICA 2019
And so, a key piece of ABHI’s work is to cultivate a positive environment that encourages growth for the sector. This happens through international activity, which includes hosting UK pavilions at some of the world’s largest health shows, dedicated healthtech trade missions to key markets and business development support through its US Accelerator programme.
This year, ABHI will once again be leading a pavilion of health technology companies at MEDICA 2019. With thousands of visitors expected to visit the pavilion every day, MEDICA is a prime opportunity for UK companies to meet their global partners in one place. Added to this, the ABHI’s publicity work provides UK exhibitors with great exposure before and during the show.
Through exhibiting with ABHI, companies have full access to a central support stand, meeting areas, working offices and an internet café. There will be dedicated one-to-one sessions with representatives from the UK’s Department for International Trade, invitations to exclusive networking drinks receptions and, for the first time, individual access to several of ABHI’s senior leadership team.
The latter provides UK exhibitors with access to ABHI’s knowledge, expertise and support on topics ranging from digital health, regulation, policy and market access.
Paul Benton, managing director, International, ABHI said: “The UK has long been a leader in healthcare. We have world-class universities, dynamic companies and the biggest single-payer health system on the planet, all adding up to what is an incredible ecosystem of innovation and medical excellence. It is why overseas companies want to partner with our UK manufacturers and it is the reason the UK carries significant weight when it comes to exploring international markets. It is, in short, a stamp of quality and we are proud to be at MEDICA once again to showcase many examples of this.”
This year, the ABHI UK pavilion – will highlight ground-breaking UK digital health technologies, giving an international platform to the digital transformation breathing new life into the medical world. These include:
- MIRA Rehab, whose medical software turns physical and cognitive exercise into video games. Using motion tracking sensors, MIRA (Medical Interactive Recovery Assistant) is designed to make physical therapy easier and more fun for patients while helping clinicians track their patients' progress through means of telerehabilitation. By ‘gamifying’ exercise, the device is helping to change the way physical therapy is delivered, which can be a long and arduous process for those in need of rehabilitation.
- Another revolutionary new device being showcased on the ABHI UK pavilion is the world’s first ‘smart’ peak flow meter that connects to a smartphone. Utilising smartphone sensor technology, the device can predict a potential attack up to seven days in advance, allowing asthma patients to better manage their condition. The smart device, created by Smart Respiratory Products, allows patients to understand their peak flow (the measure of how quickly you can blow air out of your lungs) through a mobile app and is set to aid the 235 million asthma sufferers worldwide.
- Oxford MEStar – an Oxford University bioengineering spinout company – will also be joining the ABHI UK Pavilion to showcase the world’s first digital Faecal Occult Blood testing devices to enable early bowel cancer identification. Originally formed by scientists from the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Oxford University, measure Bowel Health is the company’s first product in a series of digital handheld diagnostic tests. It is the only digital faecal occult blood (FOB) testing device of its kind and uses patented technology originating from research carried out over ten years at the Universities of Glasgow and Oxford, to detect the early signs of bowel conditions including cancer.