Compamed & Medica round-up: Robotics, apps and components

The demand market for medical technology and medical products is becoming increasingly challenging and discriminating worldwide. Providers are adapting to this on a flexible basis and furnishing appropriate answers that include innovations for modern and cost-efficient medical care – visitors to Compamed and Medica saw.  

Wolfram Diener, managing director of Messe Düsseldorf, said: “Medica and Compamed are the number one market platforms for international business. Through their exhibitor and visitor numbers, they have confirmed their role as growth drivers for exports. This is in the interests of suppliers, of whom a great deal is currently being demanded in this market environment. Increasing trade restrictions, uncertainty in regard to Brexit, growing pressure on margins and other challenges, including ever more complex approval procedures for medical products, should be mentioned in this context.”

There was record participation with 5500 exhibitors at Medica and nearly 800 at Compamed. Delegations with senior decision-makers from regions including Asia (such as Thailand’s deputy prime minister and trade minister Jurin Laksanawisit), North Africa and South America contributed.

A content focal point at Medica 2019 was medical robotic applications. Kuka used the Medica platform to demonstrate a variety of possible applications for its lightweight medical robot “LBR Med” in the final round of its “Innovation Award”. The spectrum of award topics ranged from a robot platform with magnetic capsules for early detection of colon cancer to an application that provides robot-supported laser treatment for varicose veins and robot-assisted, personalised back massages. “temi” was another innovation at Medica. This home-care robot is manufactured by Medisana and is a digital everyday aid that aims to help people remain in their own homes far into old age. 

Robert Geiger, managing director of Aktormed, explains that use of robots is intended to support doctors rather than replace them.

He said: “Our robot-assisted assistance systems allow the surgeon to perform minimally invasive, highly precise operations while reducing the strain on medical personnel to the greatest extent possible.”

Compact solutions for better networking of the participants in the healthcare sector, such as for data transfer between doctors and for communication between doctor and patient, are also advancing. Many Medica exhibitors demonstrated what mHealth applications are already accomplishing today in order to accelerate care and make it less complicated.

In the final pitches of the eighth Medica App Competition, the “SynPhNe” team (Singapore) won the contest for the world’s best health app solution. It developed a networked, portable solution that trains both the brain and the muscles in mobilisation therapy.

Whether robotics or mobile health, these areas of technological application will not be able to move forward without improvements in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. That’s why AI, deep learning and big data were also important topics at the expert forums, such as at the Medica LabMed Forum. The practical use of AI in digital pathology, which promises particular benefits in the diagnosis of cancer, was highlighted here.  

Nearly 800 exhibitors from 41 nations set a new record for the leading international industry platform for suppliers to the medical technology industry. This area is currently benefiting above all from the demand for increasingly powerful components and digitalised solutions for mobile devices for diagnostics, therapy and laboratory equipment.

Dr Thomas Dietrich, executive director of the IVAM Professional Association for Microtechnology, said: “Microtechnologies are key to the digitalisation of medical technology. Without miniaturised components and processes that enable ultra-precise manufacturing, portable and networked devices that transmit and evaluate vital parameters or medication would not be possible.”  

The strong demand for miniaturised components, such as tiny components for so-called lab-on-a-chip applications, was also highlighted by the range of innovations of the 55 exhibitors participating in IVAM’s joint exhibition stand. Current trends on the supplier market were also addressed in the two specialist forums integrated into Compamed, which offered a comprehensive overview of all aspects of the development, manufacture and approval of medical products – from electronics manufacturing to machining of plastics and metal all the way through to regulations.