“Meet Health. Future. People.” is MEDICA’s campaign slogan for the future in the new trade fair year 2025.

The leading international trade fair for the healthcare and medical technology industry confirmed how aptly chosen the motto is with the successful staging of MEDICA 2024 and the concurrently held No. 1 supplier trade fair COMPAMED 2024. “The best options for global networking were on offer, along with an incredible variety of cutting-edge innovations and top-level program highlights. MEDICA is unique in its global reach,” said Marius Berlemann, Chief Operating Officer of Messe Düsseldorf, impressed by all the activities at the exhibition booths and stage programs. From November 11 - 14, a total of 5,800 exhibiting companies from 72 nations presented their expertise to some 80,000 trade visitors from 165 countries at the fairgrounds in Düsseldorf, Germany and provided an impressive overview of modern healthcare solutions for inpatient and outpatient care. The events are unique worldwide for presenting the entire medical technology value chain which also includes technically sophisticated supplier products. With a high proportion of decision-makers and high satisfaction ratings, both events were perfectly in line with the excellent results of previous years.

More than 90% of the trade visitors had decision-making authority and over 90% were satisfied with their participation in the events.

“This boosts our exhibitors' business. Overall, the trade fair's success shows us that the international competition for leadership in medical technology innovation is gaining momentum and, as in other industries, companies from Asia are also heavily involved. In addition to the German companies participating, other national and regional businesses from Europe, China, South Korea, India and, of course, Japan and Taiwan were particularly well represented with top innovations. We are particularly pleased with the large number of exhibitors from the U.S., which once again made up almost 10% of all exhibitors, with their variety of joint booths, including those representing multiple U.S. states”, explained Christian Grosser, Director Health & Medical Technologies at Messe Düsseldorf. Overall, 372 U.S. exhibitors showcased their product at MEDICA 2024, with 157 participating in the two U.S. Pavilions, organized by Messe Düsseldorf North America. At COMPAMED 2024, 87 U.S. companies displayed their innovations, with 22 exhibitors participating in the U.S. Pavilion, also organized by Messe Düsseldorf North America.

Especially for the many newcomers taking part in MEDICA and COMPAMED, for small and medium-sized companies as well as for highly focused niche players, the high degree of internationality on both the exhibitor and visitor side once again proved to be a decisive success factor in the search for partnerships for development, contract manufacturing and sales. “MEDICA brings together thousands of industry experts from around the world every year. It is the ideal stage to discover the latest advances and developments in the healthcare sector and to forge valuable contacts”, stated Maxine Wang, Managing Director of Bricon GmbH, describing the inspiring global exchange during the trade fair. The company specializes in the development, manufacture and worldwide distribution of spinal implants.

Hospital Conference provides strong impulses for the trade fair business
For more than half a century, MEDICA has been characterized by its ability to surprise with innovations, with program updates that keep pace with the times which ideally bridge the gap between knowledge transfer, professional discussion and relevant exhibitor innovations.

One important new feature this year was the themed hall space allocation in the MEDICA spheres “Med Tech & Devices“ and “Digital Health“ (Halls 12 and 13) with a new location for the accompanying German Hospital Conference. For the first time, the leading event for the top management of German hospitals was held at the very center of the trade fair in Hall 12. At the highly acclaimed opening of the 47th German Hospital Conference, German Federal Minister of Health Prof. Karl Lauterbach (via livestream) and North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of Health Karl-Josef Laumann, among others, addressed the delegates, focusing in particular on the changes in the German hospital landscape as a result of the upcoming hospital reform.

Particularly relevant exhibitors presented hospital decision-makers with innovations for clinical equipment and operating theatres around the event area. This resulted in a perfect match and a strong impulses for the trade fair business, and not only for the company LINAK. Together with TENTE, LINAK presented a new type of drive system that can be integrated into most hospital beds. This works according to the “e-bike principle” and offers hospital staff noticeable relief when transporting patients. “MEDICA was an excellent opportunity to present our new product, which will revolutionize the care sector. We were able to address medical personnel, hospital management, developers and health politicians alike”, commented LINAK’s Managing Director Christoph Messing.

Exciting sessions and special events
In the adjacent MEDICA world of experience “Digital Health”, the range of exhibitors was complemented by an extensive stage program (MEDICA HEALTH IT FORUM, MEDICA ECON FORUM and MEDICA INNOVATION FORUM) as well as special events such as the MEDICA START-UP PARK (with a record number of 60 start-ups) and the Wearable Technologies Show, attracting a lot of attention. The Hospital of the Future is a relatively new addition to the MEDICA program. The special exhibition started last year and is now continued with a focus on digital networking and cooperation via telemedicine in hospital networks. The Korea Medical Device Association (KMDA) agreed to a collaboration and presented digital innovations for rapid patient diagnostics in hospitals in a dedicated zone, which also used AI-based software.

In addition to the popular start-up competitions, the “Women Leaders in Healthcare” session at the MEDICA INNOVATION FORUM, which is now tailored to the entire spectrum of digital innovations, was one of the absolute highlights on the second day. The speakers included Hadas Bitran from Microsoft, Ayelén Fernández from HP, Audrey Sherman from Solventum and Nina Wöss from Female Founders. They provided insights into how they achieved success and attained management positions and how they are playing a decisive role in shaping innovation and digital transformation 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 was the winning pitch team 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 Samphire Neuroscience team from the UK with a headset that acts on the neural networks of the brain to help alleviate menstrual pain and the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS).

News about the year’s hot topics
Whether with program sessions at the forums and conferences or with exhibitor presentations in the five trade fair spheres: In the context of the digital transformation of the healthcare sector, MEDICA 2024 highlighted all the year’s hot topics, such as the growing importance of interconnected models of care. The focus was also on AI-supported systems, robotic solutions and concepts for dealing with the shortage of skilled workers. Among the innovations presented at the trade fair were robotic applications to assist with highly complex neurosurgical procedures and orthopedic operations (including hip replacements). Also new was an AI-based tool for the automatic documentation of medical consultations, a whole range of rapid tests for point-of-care diagnosis of a wide variety of infectious diseases (e.g., gonorrhea or the mpox virus including the problematic clade Ib mutation) and a medically certified smartwatch (Huawei) for easy blood pressure measurement on the wrist.

The special “Automotive Health” activity area (in Hall 12), which was designed in cooperation with the Innovation Institute from Frankfurt, was also a special and popular attraction. Nowadays, a number of sensors and functions can be built into cars to enable safe and healthy driving. Fatigue detection systems, which are already commonplace, are just one example. In future, many more functionalities will be able to automatically detect risks of emergencies based on the measurement of drivers’ vital data, thus possibly avoiding serious accidents. The Innovation Institute demonstrated its development expertise in this field by exhibiting vehicles such as the VW ID.4 and also made the technology tangible in a racing simulator.

COMPAMED: a platform for “enablers”
In Halls 8a and 8b, 750 supplier companies 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 packed program on all days of the trade fair, covering the latest hot topics in the supplier sector, such as AI, robotics and automation, microtechnology developments and material innovations.

Detailed information about live events at the trade fairs, including interviews/statements from exhibitors and visitors are available at https://www.medica-tradefair.com and https://www.compamed-tradefair.com.

The next staging of MEDICA and COMPAMED will take place in Düsseldorf, Germany from November 17 – 20, 2025.

With a view to the growth markets in Asia, Messe Düsseldorf started marketing its health trade fairs in Singapore, Thailand, China and India under the uniform umbrella brand MEDICARE ASIA from a central location in Singapore in September 2024. In 2025, these event will include:

MEDICAL FAIR INDIA in New Delhi from March 27 – 29, 2025
MEDICAL FAIR CHINA in Suzhou from August 20 – 22, 2025
MEDICAL FAIR THAILAND in Bangkok from September 10 – 12, 2025