Post by Tanja Valentin

It is over 15 years that I work in the health and medtech sector, yet, this year was my first visit to Medica - hooray 🎉! Here is what I take home from it: 🌍 Size & Global Reach Wow, the event was HUGE! I easily hit my 10,000 steps a day. One thing that really stood out to me was the massive number of Asian exhibitors. It might be an anecdotal, yet a striking sign, and suggesting that all efforts are needed to support manufacturers in Europe to remain competitive with the rest of the world. 💡 Innovation vibes One cannot escape the enthusiasm for #innovation that permeates the halls and conversations. The positive spirit of striving for improving things is the key motivator for everyone there, from start-ups and larger companies, to hospitals, medical and nursing professionals, research institutes and regions (hello #TheLänd). Focus was not just on a new or better device, but about improving the experience of people, patients and healthcare workers, and about solutions that allow systems and settings to work more seamlessly together. ⚡ New Challenge: Resilience Of course, the upcoming revision of EU’s #MDR and #IVDR was still front and centre, as was #digitalisation in its many aspects; yet another topic emerged in the sessions and debates: the one of #resilience; how to prepare our countries, our populations, our healthcare systems and infrastructure and adapt in light of threats from natural disasters and geopolitical tensions. It will be an important task for #medtech companies to design products, processes and solutions that can help strengthening this resilience. 🤝 Networking & People Ultimately, it’s the people that made the visit so valuable. (Re-)connecting, sharing ideas, exchange views, listening and learning from each other is the best part of it all. It inspires and collaboration drives our health ecosystem forward towards desirable progress. What about you? What’s your key takeaway from Medica this year? Dr. Sascha Wettmarshausen Jörg Mayer Oliver Boehle Julia Steckeler Johannes Sarx