Health market still a growth market

Manufacturers of medical devices and technologies have most recently turned their attention primarily to the booming markets of the Middle East and Asia, some of which have managed to gleam with double-digit growth rates. In China alone, where about 2,000 new hospitals are currently being built or expected to open in the next eight years, the market for medical technology is expected to grow even more rapidly in the years ahead from approx. €12 billion at present. Since there is demand for high quality medical devices, especially in the megacities, the representatives of government institutions and decision-makers from the healthcare sector in China are increasingly looking to Germany and Europe to find industrial partners for upcoming projects.

Even in the supposedly saturated markets of the industrialised nations in Europe and North America, the total market volume is still disproportionately higher than in the Asiatic region. Germany alone accounts for about €8 billion more than the Chinese market. Over and above that, health professionals are very well trained, the level of care is high, the procedure for marketing authorisation is comparatively fast and the "secondary" health services market for self-payers is gaining increasing significance. The increasingly aging patient population is willing to pay a certain proportion of the costs of health care, over and above the standard provision, to boost their quality of life. This willingness to pay depends, however, on making the effectiveness of medical innovations evident.

Markets are ruled by cost-benefit analysis
A key characteristic common to every market across every continent on earth irrespective of all of the specific national features and economic influences is: The increasing importance of cost-benefit analysis of innovations in medical technology. No longer is it just a question of providing the best possible treatment, what is now called for is the best possible treatment at the best possible price. Every November, MedTech manufacturers from around the world take advantage of MEDICA to present the entire spectrum of new products, services and solutions devised to increase the efficiency and quality of both in- and out-patient care. This is where they meet key decision makers from the European markets with the greatest potential and volume as well as trade visitors from every continent, from a total of some 120 different countries. Of the 134,500 visitors who attended MEDICA 2011, about half came to Düsseldorf from abroad.

To what extent they use the fair not to gather information on current trends, but also to establish and develop new business contacts and actually close new deals is evident from what the Assistant Secretary for Trade Promotion and Director General for the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service Suresh Kumar had to say, as he underlined its position as the world’s No. 1 event in the field during his visit to MEDICA 2011: “MEDICA is a business platform for thousands of small and medium-sized companies, not just for large corporations. The deals concluded here create new jobs immediately."

Once again in 2012, the key segments, clearly laid out in the different halls:
? Electromedicine/Medical Technology (Halls 9-14; over 2,400 exhibitors)
? Laboratory Technology/Diagnostics (Halls 1-3)
? Physiotherapy/Orthopaedic Technology (Halls 4-5)
? Commodities and Consumables (Hall 5, 6, 7.0, 7.1, 7a)
? Information and Communication Technology (Hall 15)
? Medical Furniture and Specialist Furnishings
? Building Technology for hospitals and doctors' surgeries.

Industry puts its money on the No. 1

The industry continues to put its money on MEDICA in 2012, as it features the right balanceGifts for Runners