Regardless of current trends, the MEDICA LABMED FORUM has always paid particular attention to cardiological and oncological diseases as the leading causes of death in the Western world, flanked since 2024 by the latest findings from research into ageing and longevity.
Key topics & highlights 2025
This year's key topics and highlights on the individual days of the event are:
- Monday, 17 November: Skills shortage & IVDR led by Prof. Dr Thomas Streichert (University of Cologne)
- Tuesday, 18 November: Cardiogenetics & oncology led by Prof. Dr. Stefan Holdenrieder (Technical University of Munich)
- Wednesday, 19 November: Young scientists, AI & tele-lab care led by PD Dr. Verena Haselmann (University of Mannheim)
- Thursday, 20 November: Healthy ageing and longevity led by Dr Kai Prager and Dr Peter Quick (VDGH Berlin)
The morning sessions of the forum begin at 10:30 a.m. and end at 12:30 p.m. After a lunch break with selected industry presentations, the afternoon sessions continue from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. – on Thursday, the schedule will be slightly different due to the shortened exhibition hours (10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.).
Day 1: Skilled labour shortage and in vitro regulation
According to recent surveys of medical laboratories, staff shortages are currently the biggest challenge to maintaining regular laboratory operations. Prof. Thomas Streichert, chair of the Monday session, explains: ‘The ongoing shortage of qualified specialists is making it increasingly difficult for hospital laboratories to ensure fast, high-quality results in the face of rising sample numbers and increasingly complex diagnostics.’ On the forum stage, experts from the fields of practice, management and training will discuss:
- Causes and current developments in staff shortages
- Innovative approaches to employee recruitment and retention
- Digitalisation and automation as a relief in everyday life
During the session, best practices will be presented for laboratories that are ready to break new ground for a secure future.
The afternoon session will focus on the latest developments in the field of In Vitro Diagnostics Regulation (IVDR), a European Union regulation governing the approval, marketing and monitoring of tests for laboratory examinations on humans. Among other things, the panel will address new developments in cybersecurity and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and will deal with consumer protection in direct-to-consumer testing (DTCT), a relatively new form of direct marketing of laboratory tests via the internet and pharmacies without medical supervision.
Day 2: Cardiology and oncology
The Tuesday session will be chaired by Prof. Stefan Holdenrieder, who is also the organiser of the overall scientific programme. Traditionally, on the second day of the exhibition, he presents current developments in laboratory medicine for the two disease complexes that determine mortality in the Western world: cardiovascular disease and cancer.
This year, he will focus on the emerging field of cardiogenetics in the morning session. ‘At the German Heart Centre at the Technical University of Munich, we not only record and examine mono- and polygenic risk factors that promote the development of coronary heart disease in our young patients with congenital heart defects and cardiomyopathies, but also increasingly in adults,’ says Holdenrieder. The aim here is to intervene in good time to prevent serious long-term damage. Two renowned experts from his institute, Prof. Dr. Cordula Wolf and PD Dr. Teresa Trenkwalder, will discuss these topics with Prof. Eric Schulze-Bahr, Director of the Institute for Genetics of Heart Diseases (IfGH) at Münster University Hospital.
Early detection of cancer from blood
In oncological diagnostics, Prof. Holdenrieder addresses the ‘hot topic’ of ‘multi-cancer early detection’ (MCED). This involves highly sensitive and highly parallelised techniques that enable the early detection of cancer from blood. The basis for this are DNA molecules that are released from cancer cells into the circulation – known as cell-free or cfDNA – and which, due to certain biochemical characteristics such as methylation and fragment length patterns, can provide information about which tumours they originate from, even before these become clinically or radiologically detectable. Advanced bioinformatic techniques are required to evaluate the flood of data generated in this process.
