In particular, “wearables” and smartphones in combination with special health apps, which can also be used by patients themselves, have the potential of becoming an indispensable element of networked health in the future. Numerous new products relating to this topic have been already presented at the MEDICA 2015, and countless other mobile health applications are currently under development, whereby many focus on cardiovascular diseases, diabetes as well as the remote monitoring of therapies. Here a particularly high level of user potential can be expected in the future with regard to patient numbers.

The topic of big data also continues to be a focus of visitors' interest. At its core, it has to do with compiling and evaluating enormous amounts of patient data in order to be able to gain knowledge with regard to the development of and effective therapy for certain diseases.


The MEDICA ECON FORUM will also be dealing with the opportunities and consequences of healthcare digitalisation. The forum (in hall 15), organised as a joint effort between the Techniker Krankenkasse (a German statutory health insurance company) and Messe Düsseldorf, has been firmly established as a platform for health policy dialogue, shown by the confirmations of prominent guests to again attend this year’s event. Those who have already confirmed their participation include, among others: The Federal Minister of Health, Hermann Gröhe, the NRW Minister of Health, Barbara Steffens, or also Maria Klein-Schmeink, health policy spokeswoman of the Bundestag parliamentary group Alliance 90/The Green Party (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen).

The third dimension is finding its way into operating theatres
Not only bits and bytes are affecting the healthcare business, however. Medical technology also has exciting topics to offer. At the moment, innovations for interventional procedures are seen as particularly important. In the case of modern surgery procedures, an "integrated" approach is in demand. Data deriving from medical imaging flows into the controls of surgical assistance systems. They can even be generated during surgery by imaging systems directly available in the operating theatre, ensuring that the intervention can take place in a precise and gentle manner. Here, above all, progress in the field of endoscopy and instruments for minimally invasive surgery translate into great benefit.

Currently, the third dimension is increasingly finding its way into operating theatres. In the case of so-called 3D laparoscopy systems, there are two image sensors that are precisely aligned with each other at the end of the endoscope, providing the surgeon with a lifelike endoscopic 3D image during the course of minimally invasive surgery.

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