The pharmaceutical industry has spent more than a decade discussing the digital factory, yet many of the same challenges remain: meeting regulatory expectations around data integrity, improving process visibility and traceability, controlling manufacturing costs and staying competitive.
Discussion at the Pharmaceutical Automation and Digitalisation Congress (AUTOMA+) 2026 recognises that artificial intelligence is an important part of clinical innovation, positioning it as a practical tool for improving speed, decision accuracy and transparency in drug development. Industry attention is increasingly shifting towards AI-driven data ecosystems, advanced analytics and intelligent…
The Pharmaceutical Automation and Digitalisation Congress (AUTOMA+) 2026 takes place in Zurich on 16-17 November and reflects companies' approach to digital transformation as a business and operational priority.
Advances in artificial intelligence and multimodal data integration are poised to revolutionise cancer diagnostics – but significant challenges remain before these technologies can be routinely deployed in clinical practice. Professor Manuel Salto-Tellez outlined the steps needed to bridge the gap between complex tumour biology and the relatively simple biomarkers currently available, speaking…
Computational pathology is becoming increasingly important in helping deliver precision medicine to a wider range of patients. Experts at the 37th European Congress of Pathology in Vienna discussed how algorithms can optimise laboratory workflows, generate stronger evidence for molecular tumour boards, and enhance clinical trial design.
When radiologists at Stockholm's Capio Sankt Görans Hospital began working evenings and weekends to clear mounting backlogs, it became clear that something had to change. The solution? Replacing one of the two radiologists traditionally assigned to read breast cancer screenings with artificial intelligence (AI). The results: fewer false positives, more cancers detected, and radiologists…
What have been the latest developments in digital R&D and lab automation, patient-centric design, digitalised manufacturing and supply chains? Highlighting the rise of a smart pharma, AUTOMA+ 2025 took place in Vösendorf, Austria on 24-25 November. The event was a dynamic interplay of technology, solutions and forward-thinking ideas.
Europe’s healthcare systems face growing pressure: fewer staff, higher infection-control demands, and increased documentation. Estonia is already built for this. With 99% of health data digital, digital trust is built into everyday healthcare – giving Estonian companies a strong foundation for efficient collaboration, fast traceability, and AI-supported operations.
The Pharmaceutical Automation and Digitalisation Congress (AUTOMA+) 2025 is a hub for decision-makers and digital innovators for exchanging insights on the integration of AI within pharma operations. To bring on the networking discussions, the Congress is held in Vösendorf, Austria on November 24-25.
Remote monitoring via microfluidic platforms, AI-assisted sensor systems, and more: Attendees of the Labmed Forum at Medica saw impressive examples on how wearable technology is becoming a transformative force in laboratory medicine to improve real-time monitoring of patients, covering widespread conditions such as diabetes, asthma and COPD. With an emphasis on remote monitoring, devices are…
The Pharmaceutical Automation and Digitalisation Congress (AUTOMA+) 2025 welcomes delegates to be a part of its 5th anniversary in Vösendorf, Austria on 24-25 November. This edition focuses on AI-powered pharma, robotics and smart digital solutions.
Machine learning (ML) for personalised care, large language models for empathy training of cardiologists, wearable sensor data for better screening, and more: Digital technologies hold great potential to improve diagnosis and treatment of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). At the ESC 2024 cardiology congress in London, four experts explored the benefits of new solutions and pointed out…
North Bristol NHS Trust and Fujifilm Healthcare Europe continue their long-standing relationship, with the establishment of a reference site agreement for the company's new pathology solution.
This March, the city of Poznań in Poland will host experts from the laboratory industry for the third edition of the Labs Expo Laboratory Equipment and Technology Fair.
Better protection against cybercrime, more efficient threat deterrence: The European Commission has presented an EU action plan to bolster the cybersecurity of hospitals and healthcare providers.
In the world of theatre, the ‘deus ex machina’, the god from the machine, is a dramaturgical trick to resolve seemingly unsolvable conflicts. Can artificial intelligence (AI) also be such a universal problem solver for internal medicine? At the Annual Congress of the German Society of Internal Medicine (DGIM), Dr Isabella Wiest explored the potential – and limitations – of AI helpers.
How can innovations help to master challenges and demands in healthcare? This central question will be addressed at the Medica Health IT Forum, an established part of the programme at the trade fair.
Artificial Intelligence will be a critical component in ensuring a Europe-wide lung cancer screening programme can achieve its potential, according to speakers at a special ECR 2024 session. Delegates heard that the SOLACE project (Strengthening the screening of Lung Cancer in Europe) will be supported by AI in terms of workflow, diagnostics, and image and data analysis.
Managing Directors and C-level executives from hospitals, clinics, and healthcare facilities gather in Berlin to discuss the latest advances and strategies for the digitalisation of healthcare.
Companies are joining the focus exhibition of the Pharmaceutical Automation and Digitalisation Congress (AUTOMA+) to present their services and find new connections for further collaboration. The Congress is held on 18-19 November 2024 in Zurich, Switzerland.
For many, the term “metaverse” evokes images of VR headsets and the rebranded company behind Facebook – but can the digital parallel universe provide actual benefits for healthcare? Dr Anke Diehl has studied the technology intensively and recognises significant potential for medical applications. However, the expert for digital transformation at Essen University Medicine, Germany, cautions…
As AI is playing an increasingly crucial role in the fields of pharmacy and medicine, Pharmaceutical Automation and Digitalisation Congress (AUTOMA+ 2024) welcomes the entire industry value chain to join the roundtable discussion on the innovative strategies that are navigating the future of pharma. The Congress takes place in Zurich, Switzerland, on 18-19 November 2024.
Digital leaders and major players of the whole value chain gather at Pharmaceutical Automation and Digitalisation Congress (AUTOMA+ 2024) to share professional opinion on trends and latest solutions for the pharma digital transformation. Following the long-standing tradition, the Congress is held in the heart of the pharmaceutical industry, Zurich, Switzerland, on 18-19 November 2024.
The Automa+ 2023 congress has brought fascinating insights into the pharmaceutical landscape. This article distills highlights from the congress, illuminating the paradigm-shifting strides that are set to propel the pharmaceutical industry into a future characterized by interconnected, empathetic, and forward-thinking practices.
AI plays an increasingly important role in medicine – and this should also be reflected in medical curricula. New work from an international team suggests how this could be done.
From cancer to AI, from management to new medication: this year's Labmed Forum at MEDICA 2023 in Düsseldorf (November 13-16) once again features an exciting scientific programme.
Centralized review of slides combined with telepathology has opened up the potential for a dramatic reduction in the waiting times for breast cancer patients to start their therapy. Jan Hudecek from the Netherlands Cancer Institute outlined his team’s framework for multi-centre clinical trials with centralized digital pathology review at the 9th Digital Pathology and Artificial Intelligence…
VR and augmented reality are considered key technologies in healthcare, especially in nursing. Now, German researchers analysed the impact of smartglasses on patient interaction.
Today, a large part of all further medical treatments is based on the results of laboratory analyses. The demand for complex test procedures remains high and the challenges for laboratories are growing.
Better coordination beyond purely medical aspects: the Swiss national research programme “Smarter Health Care” shows how resources in the health sector can be used more efficiently.
In Europe, Germany has been bringing up the rear in implementing the electronic patient record (EPR) for years. While the EMRAM score of German hospitals continues to be negligible – on the international as well as on the European level – there are signs of progress that give reason for hope.
At this year's Medica (Nov 14-17), the Health IT Forum offers a special focus on how health IT can contribute to more sustainability in healthcare, and on optimising treatment workflows.
Driving the healthcare industry towards digital transformation was the main direction of Automa+ 2022. The Congress gathered leaders from hospitals and healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies, governmental bodies and institutions as well as medical device manufacturers, service providers and start-ups in Zurich, Switzerland on September, 26-27, 2022.
Every day, elderly people fall – be it at home or in care facilities. Med-tech start-up Lindera developed an app that allows motion analysis via a smartphone camera to minimize the risk of falling.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing our healthcare systems. It can help us detect diseases earlier, improve patient care and reduce healthcare costs. However, there is still a lack of trust, of rules and safety regulations and of broad data pools. How can we use AI successfully in healthcare systems and what role will it play in the future?
Digitisation offers great opportunities in pathology to work more efficiently and faster. Used correctly, it reduces the workload for both pathologists and laboratory staff.
"Virtual Care & Digital Therapeutics", "Medical Artificial Intelligence & Robotics", "Fields of Innovation" and "Societal aspects of digitized healthcare" are the topics of this year's Health IT Forum at Medica. New this year: In line with the hybrid event concept of the trade fair, the Expert Panels, Tech Talks and Deep Dive Sessions can be…
At their workplace, neurosurgeons often have to make compromises since most ORs were not designed with the specific needs of their discipline in mind. To address this issue the University Hospital in Essen, Germany, equipped an OR especially for neuro- and spine surgery. The aim is nothing less than revolutionizing the field with the help of digitalisation and cutting-edge technology.
One of the negative impacts of the coronavirus pandemic has been the suspension or postponement of many cancer screening services. Each year, these services help prevent and detect the presence of cancer at an early stage; timely diagnosis and care are crucial in preventing the spread of cancer. The National Screening Observatory has confirmed this, reporting alarming statistics: during the first…
The Corona pandemic poses new challenges for health care facilities as well as manufacturers of health IT and medical technology. Marcel Herrmann, Marketing Manager Medical Imaging at JVCKenwood, explains in an interview what these are and how they can be solved.
Digitisation offers great opportunities in pathology to work more efficiently and faster. Used correctly, it reduces the workload for both pathologists and laboratory staff. Patients receive their findings faster. The prerequisite is a grossing table that seamlessly integrates the digital systems into the work process.
For the first time in the history of MEDICA, the world-leading medical trade fair, and the industry’s number one platform for the suppliers of the medical technology industry, COMPAMED, held from 16 to 19 November 2020, took place entirely online due to the pandemic - but still won over their audiences due to their high degree of international resonance in this format too, as virtual.MEDICA and…
MEDICA in Düsseldorf is a world-leading platform for the medical technology business and the healthcare industry and has always been one of the places to be for the entire sector as it covers current digital health trends, innovative products and services for linking all of the major stakeholders in medical care. Consequently, digital health is a mainstay of virtual.MEDICA, which, due to the…
This year, the MEDICA LABMED FORUM will offer a high-profile programme with top speakers which is free for registered online visitors.
In August 2019, the Evangelische Krankenhaus Wesel (EVK) was the first hospital in the Lower Rhine region in Germany to invest in a robotic system for abdominal surgery. In the beginning, the Senhance® Surgical Robotic System, developed by TransEnterix, was used for minimally invasive interventions in general surgery but today its field of application has widened considerably. The EVK team is…
Healthcare is going digital worldwide at an incredibly rapid pace. More and more applications for prevention, diagnostics and therapy are being made into apps (with matching hardware) for smartphones and tablets or are even available as wearables for direct use on the body. Digitalisation is also striding forward in Germany, where doctors, therapists and patients still take a fairly analogue…
Today the impressive development of drones by some people is happily regarded as the pinnacle of digitalisation in healthcare. Some groups are testing whether drones can quickly and safely deliver defibrillators to patients in need or whether they can transport laboratory samples or blood products. These developments catch lots of attention, but PD Dr Dominik Pförringer, trauma and orthopaedic…
Spain has powerful regional e-health projects, but implementing a national strategy remains a complicated task. Lack of interoperability and low resources slow down data sharing across 17 autonomous communities, and sometimes even within the same region, key experts in the field explain. Although Spain transfers skills to its communities, everyone can benefit from emergency and primary care…
According to a survey carried out by the WHO in 2016, 70% of EU Member States have a national eHealth policy or strategy and 84% of Member States have a national universal health coverage policy or strategy. The research identified funding as the most important barrier to fully implementing eHealth programmes. In the recent years, it has become a key asset for improving how health information is…
Intelligent IT solutions are key in meeting today’s and tomorrow’s challenges in healthcare management. Ensuring patients get the attention and individual care they need in time – in light of growing budget constraints and ever-increasing regulations, this is one of the key resource struggles healthcare organisations face today. Healthcare personnel only have as much time on their hands as…
A controversy regarding the benefit of early screening programmes for breast cancer continues. Germany, Austria and Switzerland have developed individual strategies. European Hospital asked three experts from these countries to outline each chosen system. Markus Hahn MD, senior consultant at the University Breast Centre in Tübingen, Martin Daniaux, MD, Head of Breast Diagnostics at the Breast…
Early adoption of image analytical tools and artificial intelligence are crucial if health systems across Europe are to see the full potential of digital pathology, according to a leading expert. While a growing number of European institutions are beginning to embrace digital pathology, Professor Johan Lundin remains concerned about the slow pace of progress. He acknowledges that more…
Digital mobile X-ray systems equipped with a Flat Panel Detector (FPD) are used to examine patients during hospital rounds and for urgent cases in A&E and neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Leading medical equipment manufacturer Shimadzu (www.shimadzu-medical.eu) reports that its new MobileDaRt Evolution MX7 digital mobile X-ray systems provide ultra-modern and extensive mobile digital…
In today’s digitised world, hospitals are already embracing the benefits which technology brings to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Against a backdrop of stretched resources and operational scrutiny hospital managers are able to address the needs of multiple stakeholders through hospital-wide digitalisation.
EDMA and Eucomed members have voted to dissolve their respective European associations. A new MedTech Europe single entity has been created, representing the European medical technology sector, from diagnosis to cure. The new MedTech Europe is operating immediately.
Decision makers from all sectors of the international health industry meet again in Düsseldorf from Monday to Thursday. The world’s biggest medical trade fair, MEDICA 2016, and COMPAMED 2016, as the international leading trade fair for suppliers of the medical technology industry, take place from 14 to 17 November.
Investing in equipment and systems, training personnel and picking the right manufacturer to deliver a system that meets a hospital’s needs are key factors, according to Dr Peter Riegman, Head of Erasmus MC Tissue Bank at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam.
In order to be able to properly locate digital pathology in the current discourse on the digitalisation of healthcare, pathology has to be understood as a fundamental diagnostic discipline, above all in oncology. Report: Stefan Kropf
North West EHealth announced that its unique Linked Database System technology was used to deliver the world’s first digitally enhanced Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) in the ground-breaking Salford Lung Study* (SLS). The study relied on bespoke software, developed by NorthWest EHealth and securely hosted within the NHS network, that integrated the electronic medical records of consented…
Willem Jonker, CEO EIT Digital, today announced the results of the organisation’s €1 billion investment in digital innovation and entrepreneurship at the Driving Europe’s Digital Transformation conference in Brussels. He also announced plans for an additional investment of €1 billion over the coming years. EIT Digital will accelerate market uptake of research-based digital technologies by…
Increasing requirements for specialisation and diagnostic quality in pathology on the one hand and the importance of pathology findings for treatment planning on the other hand call for new solutions in pathomorphological diagnostics. One important starting point is the fast-paced opportunity for digitalisation along with communication systems which facilitate the storage and transfer of large…
For years discussions have been rife regarding the economic efficiency and efficiency of information and communication technology. In Germany the need is to catch up with the interoperability of technical standards and cross-industry approaches. Report: Anja Behringer
Olympus has led the field in advancing endoscopic technology. Just when experts and users thought no further optimisation was possible, Olympus placed another major innovation in the marketplace – and the firm has done it again.
Erlangen’s CSC RIS streams data through workplaces, speeds up reports and patient care, so, what’s next – greater mobility and transmission to a Cloud?
Today in most countries of the world almost 50 % of patients in hospital for a cardiac condition began their treatment as emergency cases: chest pain at home . . . a cardiac arrest in the street. Thus, according to Dr Peter Clemmensen, of the 22 million hospital admissions in Europe each year for acute cardiac events, more than 10 million of them would have begun as an emergency and without…
The VISUS system integrates cardiology modalities from all major manufacturers. Due to the company’s long experience with the communication standard DICOM, which is the corner stone of the integration of images in the PACS, images which are not available in DICOM format are digitalised with the help of a frame grabber, basically an analogue-digital converter.
A new analysis from Frost & Sullivan estimates that the PACS market in 2014 is set to reach $1,035.3 million in 2014 and forecasts significant opportunities in the European PACS market for vendors who can provide customised solutions and products that support enhanced workflows.
Fear for the quality of acute care for the injured and victims of accidents was expressed by Professor Vilmos Vécsei, traumatology and sports traumatology specialist and Head of the University Clinic for Trauma Surgery in Vienna (VV), as well as President and General Secretary of the European Trauma Society (ETS), and Professor Otmar Trentz, Director of the Trauma Surgery Clinic at University…
There is no lack of IT and software solutions for putting digitisation and networks into practice; however, many hospitals wonder how the implementation will work in practice and whether the investment will prove successful.
Mass spectrometry is pushing the boundaries of clinical pathology. Keep up-to-date with the latest research news, developments, and background information on the technique.
From telemedicine to smart hospitals, the digitalisation of healthcare is advancing - bringing exciting opportunities, but also new challenges. Keep reading for latest developments and background reports.
