med-tech innovation expo
end user, and to provide health and care systems with a vehicle which would enable them to get the best apps to their patients and citizens.” Visitors can also attend a number of inspiring stories of success from family-run businesses including, Forte Medical and Salts Healthcare. Giovanna Forte, chief executive, Forte Medical and Philip Salt, chief executive, Salts Healthcare will be sharing their experiences of transforming a family business into a global success. Dr Ian Campbell, director of health and life sciences, Innovate UK, will provide an update on industrial strategy and the industrial strategy challenge fund, while John Wilkinson, director of devices, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency will be discussing the new Medical Device Regulation – and the actions companies need to be taking. Continuing with the futuristic theme, Joel Haspel, partner, GE Healthcare Finnamore will be giving a talk on partnering for artificial intelligence development and delivery. Unsurprisingly, innovation will be a key theme at this year’s conference. Professor Mike Hannay, chair, National Network of Academic Health and Science Networks (AHSNs), will talk about the adoption and spread of Innovation in the NHS, and the role of AHSNs in addressing some of the biggest health challenges facing the UK. Mirren Mandalia, senior director, new ventures & transactions (medical devices), Johnson & Johnson Innovation, will share his experience of advising healthcare startups and leading investments that J&J Innovation makes in exciting early-stage medical devices. Speaking about the conference, Bill Cruise, chair at Medilink UK, said: “Given the high calibre of speakers from such a wide range of backgrounds, we’re certain that this year’s conference will be a great asset to the Expo, and will be of great value to all who attend.”
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HEALTHTECH STAGE Major changes are on the horizon with the implementation of the new European Medical Device Regulations (MDR), and as such regulation will be at the forefront of discussion for medtech OEMs at this year’s expo. Alan Johnson, technical director at product design group Tactiq, is set to talk about the design challenges of wearable devices on the HealthTech Stage. “An immediate impact will be on devices for which the classification changes. This will
particularly impact IVDs (in-vitro diagnostics) and software-only medical devices. Work will be needed to bring existing devices into compliance and some devices may be withdrawn”, said Johnson. “Another issue at the moment is that the notified bodies are overloaded, and this is a problem particularly for new businesses.” Medical device manufacturers have a wealth of opportunity in the years to come. Industry 4.0 holds masses of potential, particularly where compliance and quality control are concerned. But the manufacturing supply chain is changing shape in other ways, too. Jim Reed, vice president, business development and marketing at Minnetronix will be discussing virtual development partnerships across the medtech supply chain. He believes that sourcing partners from around the globe for specialist manufacturing requirements is increasingly important for British firms to stay competitive. “The industry has evolved to the point where highly specialised companies exist for nearly all kinds of manufacturing processes or technologies, component expertise, or development domain. In fact, it has become extremely difficult for traditional medical device companies operating as generalist organisations to compete with outside firms in their areas of specialisation, in terms of cost, quality and capability. “Expertise rather than co-location is what matters and virtual organisations leverage the specialised skill set from each firm to improve business objectives. “This macro trend is very positive for the UK and Ireland, where the specialist infrastructure is not as well-established as medical device hubs like Boston, the Bay Area, and Minneapolis. Minneapolis, for example, has sixty years of cumulative medical device expertise, talent pools, infrastructure, and vendor base density in a fifty mile radius.” Inevitably, Brexit is set to feature throughout the agenda with uncertainty still present in industry generally. Professor Alexander Seifalian from NanoRegMed will be discussing the development of medical devices using graphene nanomaterials in his presentation on the HealthTech stage. He was happy to talk Brexit though, and has a balanced view on the transition which will directly impact his work: “The negative side is that we have been doing lots of collaboration with SMEs as well as academics throughout the EU, including testing the medical device under GLP (good laboratory practice) in EU countries. This is significantly cheaper for us. “However, Brexit may bring new opportunities. This could include a closer direct link to North America and Asian countries. It could make it easier, simpler and less costly to obtain permits for medical devices through the UK’s regulatory bodies.” The HealthTech Stage will showcase the best and brightest from the Med-Tech Innovation Expo show floor, as well as technical know-how from across the industry, making it a feature not to be missed.