Carematrix at Medica

CareMatrix co-ordinators attended MEDICA along with project partners Norway Health Tech

MEDICA is the largest trade fair within medtech and health in Europe. The Carematrix team visited to learn more about relevant technologies and trends in integrated care solutions. After a 1-year hiatus due to the pandemic the fair was back in (somewhat reduced) force as a physical event taking place in Düsseldorf November 15-18^th.

The exhibition at Medica cover a broad scope of technologies and suppliers within health and care, there´s room for everything from small vendors of consumables from East Asia to large ICT corporations from the US. The trade fair is huge, spread out over 16 halls, each with a specific focus, and a shuttle bus transporting people from one end to the other.

Trends

One noticeable trend at this year’s Medica was wearables. There were more companies exhibiting different kinds of wearables, and it was also more different types of wearables than before. The trend was more visible towards wearables for monitoring and not as much about wearables for self-care.

The most interesting exhibitions were the national stands, where SMEs and startups could be found.

Not very much Integrated Care

So, what was missing? MEDICA is more of a trade fair for traditional medtech. Where there were 4 halls for traditional medtech and imaging, there was only one hall for ICT. If there is a trend towards ICT in health this has not fully exploded (at least in Medica).

You could imagine that some ICT solutions of interest for Carematrix could be found in the specific halls displaying physiotherapy solutions (from aspects of support for home-care and tools for self-rehabilitation and training) but this was not the case. Very few technologies on display in that hall with a potential to be relevantly linked to Carematrix.

There were very few companies exhibiting solutions regarding process management, quite little also on collaborative teams around individual patients, especially what we could find on inter-disciplinary teams.

How was information about Carematrix received?

Searching for companies relevant for Carematrix was not exactly like searching for a needle in a haystack, but it was not easy. There was a designated area for startups, and a lot of the regional and national stands also has showcased digital startups. The companies that we did find, even if they showcased simpler solutions, they have a good understanding of the complexities surrounding integrated health and were interested in more information about Carematrix. Most companies were positive to the possibilities of matchmaking and collaborating with other companies in consortia.

Conclusion

It was hard to find companies that have existing solutions for our challenge, as expected. But it was also hard to find companies that could be interested in our challenge and who could develop solutions. Most companies exhibited fairly straightforward and non-complex solutions. The format of a trade fair favours “simpler” solutions to catch people’s attention. Companies that were approached that had products that could be a part of a larger solution for Carematrix were very interested in hearing more about the project and wanted to be part of the OMCs.