Background Reports 2020

Large hospital complexes such as the University Hospital Bonn can save millions when they implement well thought-out energy-saving measures. Michael Körber reports how the UKB is already implementing this with the help of combined heat and power units and a comprehensive sustainability concept. Manuel Merges describes how these projects were also possible with the help of external financing.

Surgeons do not only need much concentration, but also strength and endurance. Robotic arms under their control can do part of this work. Prof. (Saitama Med. Univ.) Dietmar Stephan from the St. Marien Hospital Siegen describes in our video, how controls and haptic feedback can make surgery with a robot easier. And chief physician Prof. Frank Willeke explains, how a hospital can create the right conditions for the use of a surgical robot.

Bringing the technology to the patient and not the other way around – that is the idea behind CardioSecur. The physician can connect the mobile ECG system to his smartphone and thus have it with him always and everywhere. We asked MD and Founder Felix Brand how this works, to what extent patients also benefit from it and why the technology is particularly useful in corona times.

Many people inactively stay home these days, even though they want to move. But sports clubs and sports events are extremely limited due to the corona pandemic. How can we return to more activity, both in mass and professional sports? Learn more about this at the virtual MEDICA MEDICINE + SPORTS CONFERENCE. Dr. Sonja Sulzmaier offers an advanced look in our video interview.

What will diagnostics of the future look like? Will we find traces of diseases in the air we exhale and see signs of tumors in our blood? How does the corona pandemic influence the laboratory industry and what developments against corona are finished behind the doors of start-ups? The MEDICA LABMED FORUM during virtual.MEDICA 2020 provides answers to these questions. Prof. Georg Hoffmann offers an advanced look in our video interview.

The MEDICA CONNECTED HEALTHCARE FORUM has been one of the strongest crowd pullers at MEDICA for many years now. And we are not going to leave it out at virtual.MEDICA 2020! In our video interview, Christian Stammel, WT Wearable Technologies AG, tells us more about the Healthcare Innovation Worldcup and the MEDICA Start-up COMPETITION that take place in the virtual forum at 16 and 17 November.

Does the medical technology industry profit from the corona pandemic? Partly yes, but at large, it also suffers through this crisis. This is one of the topics that the industry association SPECTARIS addresses during virtual.MEDICA 2020. Marcus Kuhlmann talks about this and other topics in our video interview.

Digital health applications, networked ORs, cybersecurity – digitalization has been turning the healthcare market upside down for some time now and is still not done yet. The MEDICA TECH FORUM at virtual.MEDICA 2020 deals with topic. Our editorial team has interviewed Hans-Peter Bursig from ZVEI before the event. Get an advanced peek of the forum, digitalization in medical technology and other items on the agenda in our interview.

We asked three start-ups to shortly introduce themselves in their own words in advance to virtual.MEDICA 2020. Come take a look!

Some tasks in the laboratory are repetitive, need to be done extremely precise and require a lot of time. Such tasks are very tedious for humans, but they are tailor-made for robots. Such is the case with the "AutoCRAT" project at the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT in Aachen. Here, a robotic platform is developed to produce stem cells for the treatment of osteoarthritis. Hear how this works and what it looks like from Ferdinand Biermann and Jelena Ochs in our video interview.

The Neurological University Hospital in Tübingen is a world leader in research on TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation). In this report you will learn how the stroke therapy, which is always complemented by physiotherapeutic treatment, is being developed from a punctual to an entire network treatment in the brain.

The coronavirus is pushing healthcare systems worldwide to their limits. The number of infections continues to rise – and with it the number of people who need intensive medical treatment and artificial respiration. However, the number of ventilators is limited. Solutions to support intensive care units are needed – quickly. We have taken a closer look at some of them.

Besides hand hygiene, drinking water hygiene is also on the to-do list of every hospital. A lot of money is invested to clean water pipes and to destroy legionella germs. An alternative solution for mechanical and thermal control is water disinfection using an automatic machine.

Regenerative medicine often relies on implants and materials that support healing in our body. Collagen has a special significance here. It is compatible to the body and offers an excellent environment for the growing of new cells. In our video, we took a look on where collagen and collagen products for medicine come from.

Whether after an accident, due to illness or age-related wear - artificial joints are used when natural joints lose their function. Mostly we can find them in the knee and hip area. The companies AK Medical and Biotech GmbH tell us more about innovations, positive effects, but also risks associated with endoprostheses.

Caregivers are unable to provide around-the-clock care and supervision. That’s where JUTTA, the sensor-based technical support system comes in! It stands for Just-in-Time-Assistance. The system is used in the Dementia Shared Living Community Neukirchen-Vluyn. Sensors detect the motions of people in need of care in their living environment and – thanks to connectivity – provide valuable information to caregivers.

A hospital generates several thousands of gigabytes of data each day. The growing flood of data is no longer manageable for doctors. The great hope: artificial intelligence. Radiology is the main beneficiary. Dr. Felix Nensa from Essen University Hospital and Dr. Peter Langkafel from the Digital Health Factory tell us more about the possibilities and limits of learning machines.