Compamed 2012

The conditions for giving projects a boost by increasing the efficiency and quality of health care haven’t been as good as they are now for a long time. The health fund, which the health insurance contributions paid by every German with health insurance are paid into, along with the agreed tax subsidies from the federal government, is currently very well filled, with a surplus of €8.6 billion, thanks to the buoyant economy and cuts in spending on medication. Together with the surpluses that the individual health insurance companies have, the total surplus is currently estimated to be €16 billion. In the light of this surplus, the German Society for Telemedicine (DGTelemed, Berlin) has called for part of this vast pot of money to be invested in telemedicine applications, which would have a lasting impact. All it would take would be a one-off investment to the tune of a few hundred million euros – meaning that just one to two percent of the billions of euros in the fund would suffice.

At the 6^th COMPAMED Spring Convention in Stuttgart, organised jointly by IVAM, the International Association of Microtechnology and Messe Düsseldorf, which took place on 3 May 2011, Dr. Ralf von Baer (Bosch Healthcare) took advantage of a keynote speech to highlight the potential of telemedicine, the opportunities of which have not even begun to be exploited up to now. “Telemedicine and, first and foremost, the conditions for it, have developed in a very positive direction, and the acceptance in the medical field has also improved”, says Prof. Hans-Jochen Brauns, chairman of DGTelemed. In terms of technical implementation, we are still working on the miniaturisation of sensors and control modules, the development of more intelligent and simpler end-user devices and of multi-sensor systems, which allow the integration of several sensor modules in a single device.

The Bosch Healthcare Division (Stuttgart), which was recently formed by the merger of TeleHealth and Care Solutions businesses, aims to work hard to help telemedicine make a final breakthrough.

Its main fields of telemedical care are “telecare”, “telehealth” and “teleconsultation”, which encompass safe and independent living at home, living with chronic conditions and improving clinical processes. Take, for example, “telecare”: The provision of assistance to the elderly is based on in-house emergency call systems and existing sensors. “We focus on systems that are easy to install, while keeping the complex bits hidden”, explains Dr. Ralf von Baer from Bosch Healthcare. We at Bosch Healthcare can make use of innovative sensors and micro-systems developed for the automobile sector to gather vital parameters that are essential for telemedical care. New, clinically validated vital parameters allow us to assess the condition of a patient at home much better than it was possible in the past. In future, we will be able to gather data on movement patterns and nutrition as well as seeing if someone has had a fall or to monitor their general activity as well as when devices are switched on or off. The possibilities of telemedicine are still in their early stages. The trends that are already evident in this key field were not only one of the subjects covered at the 6^th COMPAMED Spring Convention, but will also provoke plenty of discussion at COMPAMED 2012, the leading international trade fair for the suppliers’ market in medical manufacturing, cover the entire medical technology supply chain (14 – 16 November in Düsseldorf) which is held in parallel with the world's largest medical trade fair, MEDICA 2012 (14 – 17 November).

When it comes to standards, MedTech manufacturers need to focus on their target markets

Over and above the field of telemedicine, this year’s COMPAMED Spring Convention also looked at other issues that are highly topical for all those involved with medical technology. For instance, the situation for manufacturers of medical devices and technology has become increasingly complicated when it comes to the international product testing and certification requirements, as Karsten Lissek, a team leader for medical device testing at DEKRA, pointed out at the event in Stuttgart. For example, different versions of the key standard for medical devices, IEC 60601, are applicable in different markets. “Manufacturers need to comply with different standards for different target markets, meaning that companies who wish to sell their active medical devices internationally as well as in the EU need to take at least a two-track approach, if not a multi-pronged approach”, Lissek explained. One of the most important changes in the third edition of the Medical Device Standard, which comes into force throughout the EU on 1 June 2012, is the new requirement for system manufacturers to carry out a formal risk assessment. So the production of medical technology is not getting any simpler – but the fact that it also deals with standards shows just how diverse COMPAMED is, going far beyond the topics of materials, components and services.

Other examples of new technological developments presented at the COMPAMED Spring Convention were presented by Sony, one of the largest manufacturers of optical disks, having recently passed the 2 billion mark in terms of the number of disks produced. The trend in this field is towards ever-smaller pits, the depressions which are used to store the information on a CD, and ever-higher data capacity, the last milestone that was reached being 50 gigabytes. Sony DADC Austria AG (Salzburg) is also using its experience in the field of CD production for the production of micro-structured plastic parts for use in the fields of life sciences and in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) and also acts as a service provider for smaller companies. “We offer processes that are suitable for mass production, ranging from mastering to packaging and logistics from a single source”, explains Dr. Georg Bauer from Sony DADC. The first products are due to be launched soon, including a system for detecting individual molecules by fluorescence for use in bioanalytics, which was developed in cooperation with Quanterix. The American company Quanterix Corporation (Cambridge, Massachusetts) is a recognised leader in the field of IVD, with its single molecule array technology.

Another company active in this field is DST Diagnostische Systeme & Technologien (Diagnostic Systems & Technologies) GmbH (Schwerin, Germany), which develops, manufactures and markets in-vitro diagnostics for point-of-care applications. “We bring the laboratory to the people”, said Dr. Lars von Olleschik in Stuttgart, explaining DST’s concept. The company attaches great importance to user-friendliness, reliability and minimising stress on the patient. Its main products include tests based on the "FastCheckPOC" platform which use minute sample volumes in the form of whole blood or heparin blood. The products in this test series are complete test kits that require no additional devices or tools (“lab in a box”). The results are displayed after 30 minutes, at most, in an easy-to-understand way on the patented display. Although these systems obviously offer a wide range of benefits for GPs, pharmacists and end users alike, it remains unclear who will bear the costs.

The almost unbelievable search for individual cancer cells

Cancer is one of the main causes of death of the modern age. The development of faster and more cost-effective technologies for use in cancer diagnosis and therapy monitoring is seen as a great challenge. There is intense debate in the field concerning the clinical significance of circulating tumour cells with relation to various types of cancer. For patients with metastatic breast cancer (mammary carcinoma) the prognostic relevance of detecting circulating tumour cells in the blood has already been demonstrated. “The isolation of circulating cancer cells is a real challenge, because we are searching for just one tumour cell per millilitre – which is the equivalent of trying to find one particular person on the entire planet”, says Dr. Klaus Stefan Drese from the Mainz Institute of Microtechnology (IMM) to emphasise the problem at the COMPAMED Spring Convention. As part of the EU-funded project MASCOT, the IMM has developed a modular, microfluidic system for the isolation, enrichment and molecular characterisation of cancer cells from up to 7.5 ml of peripheral blood. The IMM’s activities encompass the development and realisation of the microfluidic module as well as the associated peripherals, including actuator components, fluid control and electronic activation. MASCOT shows the diagnostic and analytical possibilities that microsystems technology is opening up in modern medicine, a field which continues to play a very important role at the annual COMPAMED fair.

Another field of medical technology that is no less important is that of implants, in particular when it comes to active implants, which by definition have on-board electronics and an independent power source. The Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Technology Engineering (IBMT, St. Ingbert) is working with industrial partners such as Otto Bock Health Care on a hand or arm prosthesis that will be controlled myoelectrically, i.e. controlled by muscle signals. “To achieve this we are developing an implant to directly capture the muscle signals, which will then transmit these signals to the motors in the hand prosthesis by wireless, which will make operating the prosthesis more intuitive and easier”, says Dr. Thomas Velten from the IGBT. The institute is responsible for the wireless communication between the implant and the prosthesis as well as for the wireless power supply for the implant’s electronics.

Fighting pressure sores with textile-based sensors

Another project at the IGBT is working on a system for measuring pressure loads. Relieving the pressure on certain parts of the body is very important in the treatment of diabetes patients in order to prevent the widely feared pressure sores (ulcers). A textile-based measuring system constantly captures and analyses the pressure and a display unit shows the patients where the pressure is too high and notifies them which part of the body is affected if the pressure or time limit is exceeded, so that they can ease the pressure on their toes or heels, for example. For this project, the IBMT is responsible for the wireless transmission of the measurements from the textile to an electronic evaluation unit that is worn by the patient.

There is also increasing demand for active powered knee systems, as the number of amputations is increasing, most of these due to diseases of modern society nowadays. So far there is only one knee prosthesis that is capable of actively helping the wearer to walk using an electronic controller (the Össur “Power Knee”). Because walking with a conventional prosthesis is very tiring – prosthesis wearers burn up to 60 percent more calories than healthy people – the development of active mechatronic components is very important. This is also an area of research at the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Engineering and Automation (IPA, Stuttgart), which is working on a sensor system to identify obstacles in time to prevent collisions by monitoring the environment, for example. Energy efficiency is another major challenge facing active prostheses. “The combination of various sensor and actuator systems is sure to bring about many more interesting developments in the years ahead”, promises Bernhard Budaker from the IPA.

Many of the innovations described above will be presented to the public for the first time ever at COMPAMED 2012, making it very worthwhile to visit Düsseldorf again this year.

In 2011, MEDICA and COMPAMED welcomed a total of 134,500 trade visitors, some 16,000 of whom were specifically interested in the range of topics covered by COMPAMED, with half of the visitors coming from abroad.

The unique combination of MEDICA and COMPAMED reflects the entire process chain of medical technology – from intermediate products and innovative manufacturing solutions through to finished medical products, devices and instruments.

For information online, visit: http://www.compamed.de and http://www.medica.de

Messe Düsseldorf GmbH

MEDICA + COMPAMED 2012 Press and Public Relations

Martin-Ulf Koch/ Larissa Browa

Tel. +49(0)2114560-444/-549

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