OVER 2,000 visitors to Med-Tech Innovation Expo 2018 got the opportunity to see a range of product launches, demonstrations and a packed conference programme.
The showcase for the medical technology sector, held this year at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, featured over 100 exhibitors and two conference stages.
Visitor Paul Wilcock, digital marketing manager at The Blue Cube, hailed the event “a really good show”. He added, “The conference set up is very nice, I wish I’d had a chance to see more of it. I think there’s just a lot of good innovative products here that are worth seeing.”
Demonstrations on the latest industry innovations were hosted by the likes of Connect 2 Cleanrooms, the Centre for Process Innovation, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, XL Precision Technologies and Worrell Design.
Mitsubishi Electric’s Neil Welch said, “The show’s been great – a good number of people coming to us, but more importantly the quality of leads has been exactly what we were looking for. The type of people we want to target have been in here, so we’re really pleased.”
Across two conference stages, attendees saw presentations from experts and organisations including Innovate UK, MHRA, the Academy for Healthcare Science and NHS Digital.
Ken Block, president of US-based Ken Block Consulting, presented on the HealthTech stage and exhibited at the event. He said, “It’s been a great first show for us. To be able to come to the UK and for the first time meet folks in this market, a market that we’re hoping to serve in the future. I also had the opportunity to speak at the conference yesterday, it was great to share the US FDA perspective.”
Show features this year included the GTMA Pavilion, Inspex (which focuses on providers of measurement and inspection technologies/services) and the Medilink UK Pavilion, which gave Medilink member businesses including IHN Insurance Brokers, TBAT Innovation and GX Group the opportunity to highlight their latest solutions.
At the associated awards ceremony, Bluefrog Design took home the inaugural Advancing Healthcare Award for its approach to treating paraesthesia – a skin condition with no known cause. Using 3D laser scanning and 3D printing, the team has created a light and comfortable vest, resulting in a better quality of life for the patient.
Organisers of Med-Tech Innovation Expo have confirmed next year’s event will relocate to the NEC, Birmingham on May 15 and 16. The move will allow for an expanded number of features with new exhibitor zones and content focused on medical plastics, digital devices, pharmaceutical technologies and early stage innovations.
