Christopher Delporte, Editorial Director04.08.14
To borrow a line from a song made popular in the mid-1960s by Rat Pack crooner Dean Martin, the medical device
industry will be “goin’ back to Houston, Houston, Houston” later this month. Whether medtech professionals are goin’ back to Texas’ largest city for the fifth time, exploring the town as a new visitor, or count themselves among local longhorns, participants in the upcoming Medical World Americas (MWA) Conference and Exposition will experience a first-time event.
Program planners told Medical Product Outsourcing that the inaugural program has attracted approximately 110 exhibitors who will showcase their medical devices, technologies, products and services; the overall event is expected to attract nearly 2,000 attendees.
Medical World Americas, which is slated to become an annual event, will be held later this month, April 28-30, at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
Messe Düsseldorf, organizers of Medica—the world’s largest medical conference—partnered with the Texas Medical Center and the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) to create Medical World Americas.
In addition to its behemoth flagship event in Germany every fall, Messe Düsseldorf has organized Medica-branded healthcare events in Brazil, China, Russia and Singapore, just to name a few. But this is the first event created for North America.
Attendee registration continues to grow, the show’s planners report, with participants from 31 states and 29 countries already signed up. Currently, more than 30 percent of registrants are from outside the United States, with 10 percent coming from nearby Mexico, according to figures cited by the Greater Houston CVB. In keeping with a theme of international outreach, there currently are eight country pavilions slated for the exhibit floor.
“Medical World Americas is a continuation of our efforts at the Greater Houston CVB to help build conventions and events around Houston’s core industries,” said Greg Ortale, president and CEO of the convention and visitors bureau. “This partnership with the organizers of Medica has enabled us to capitalize on the strength of our healthcare sector and craft a conference that will become a ‘must attend’ for medical professionals across the Americas.”
According to Tom Mitchell, president of Messe Düsseldorf North America based in Chicago, Ill., MWA has been a few years in the making.
“We were approached several years ago by Houston’s CVB and the Texas Medical Center, and they had a goal to bring a healthcare conference to showcase Houston and its first-class medical facilities,” Mitchell told MPO. “The Texas Medical Center is a vast, state-of-the-art facility, with 100,000 people working there, and the city wanted to raise its profile, so they talked to us about doing something like Medica in Houston. After they approached us, we began to discuss the idea and refine it.”
Mitchell said that at one point early on there had been “very informal” talks with a few other medical device clusters in the United States but that Houston and the Texas Medical Center were the first to pitch a “real plan” to his organization.
“We want to grow this into something that is more horizontal rather than vertical like so many of the other U.S. healthcare and medtech events and give our customers the chance to attend something in this market that isn’t necessarily focused on one particular ‘ology’ but is a place where you can meet a broad range of specialists and experts in different fields,” Mitchell said. “Part of the formula is to build the conference around topics that tackle the current events in the industry, issues important to the healthcare community, based on recommendations from our advisory committee. There are lots of great shows, but they tend to be more narrowly focused. I think this—our model—is something that is hard to find in the [United] States.”
The Conference Component
The executive advisory committee that Mitchell mentioned is chaired by Robert Robbins, M.D., CEO of the Texas Medical Center. Robbins leads an eight-member team of physicians representing a number of medical disciplines. In addition to Robbins, members include: Ronald DePinho, M.D., president of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; James Duke, M.D., professor, Department of Surgery, the University of Texas Medical School; Russel W.H. Kridel, M.D., president, Harris County Medical Society; Kenneth L. Mattox, M.D., distinguished service professor, Baylor College of Medicine; Michael Shabot, M.D., chief medical officer, Memorial Hermann Healthcare System; James T. Willerson, M.D., president and medical director of the Texas Heart Institute; and William Zoghbi, M.D., professor of medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, Methodist DeBakey Cardiology Associates.
Mitchell said that for the committee and show planners, the challenge was to create an agenda that would resonate with a broad range of conference-goers.
“The advisory board has chosen really engaging topics and has reached out to a roster of incredible speakers,” Mitchell said. “It’s pretty impressive. It’s something that differentiates us, especially as a first-time event, which always takes a lot more work. But we are really second to none with the kinds of medical talent that will be presented. We have the kinds of speakers that will attract a wide range of practitioners—the doctors and nurses. In turn, those are the kinds of people that the exhibitors and other medtech professionals want to see. Our goal is to bring these different groups together.”
The conference content is built on five “pillars”—the topics upon which the keynote addresses and plenary sessions will be based. They include cardiology, oncology, hospital disaster preparedness, healthcare-associated infections, and hospital occupational health and safety. The topics will change year after year, with the intersection of caregiver/healthcare provider and medical technology remaining a constant, Mitchell noted. The conference portion of the event also will provide healthcare practitioners the ability to earn continuing education credits.
“We set out to create a world-class conference program for Medical World Americas, and thanks to the hard work and expertise of our executive advisory committee, I believe we are well on our way to doing just that,” said Robbins. “We are eager to welcome attendees and exhibitors from across the globe and we are confident that this conference will create new opportunities and showcase the Texas Medical Center, Houston’s major medical institutions, and, of course, the city itself.”
The plenary session kicking off the first day (Monday, April 28, from 10:15-11:15 a.m.) is titled “Innovations Shaping the Future of Patient Care,” with panelists Including Dr. Robbins; Stephen N. Oesterle, M.D. senior vice president for medicine and technology at Minneapolis, Minn.-based Medtronic Inc.; Jack Gill, Ph.D., co-founder of San Jose, Calif.-based Vanguard Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm that invests in technology and life-science companies; and Brian Kelly, editor and chief content officer of U.S. News and World Report magazine.
The second day’s plenary session topics include “Big Data: Transforming Medicine” (Tuesday, April 29, 10:15-11:45 am). Speakers are Lynda Chin, M.D., chair, Department of Genomic Medicine, Division of Cancer Medicine, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; Eric Brown, director, Watson Technologies, IBM Watson Group; David Glazer, director of engineering for Google; and Paul C. Boutros, Ph.D., assistant professor, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. The second plenary session on day two is “Ensuring a Lifetime of High Performance in Surgical Practice: Infrastructure, Principles, Opportunities” (4:00-5:00 p.m.). The speaker is Barbara Lee Bass, M.D., director, Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation and Education in Houston.
Other general session topics throughout the three-day event of interest to clinicians and medtech professionals include: infections from medical devices; advances in imaging and vascular heart disease; radiomics and imaging genomics; advances in heart failure treatment; injection and sharps safety; personalized cancer therapy; treating arrhythmias; fatigue and healthcare professionals; hospital preparedness lessons; and many more.
“So many of the products that medical manufacturers make are going to be used in one or more of these specialties in the hospital and healthcare settings,” Mitchell said. “The conference and exhibit components of MWA connect the two groups [medtech providers and clinicians]. We want to give people an opportunity to showcase different products that are aimed at multiple fields and hear firsthand from the folks on the frontlines.”
Goals, Always Goals
For any first-time event—or regularly held conferences, too, come to think of it—show organizers want participants to leave at the end of the program having had a valuable experience. If you did your job, conference attendees will have broadened their education and professional networks, and exhibitors made good contacts and viable business leads.
For the organizers of this year’s MWA, the goals are no different.
“We want people to say, ‘OK, this is something that we have come to expect from the organizers of Medica.’ Many of the exhibitors have been to Medica or some of our other shows before, and we want this to have all the best of a Medica-branded event,” Mitchell said. “We think conference attendees and exhibitors will see this as something new, valuable and different—especially our international exhibitors, now that we can offer them a platform in the United States that we haven’t had up until now.”
He added, however, that Medical World Americas isn’t looking to replace other shows.
“People should evaluate MWA on its own merits, and once they come to Houston, the benefits will be evident,” Mitchell said.
When asked about whether future MWA events might include a Compamed-like event (Compamed is held concurrently with Medica in Germany, and it is an exhibition for medical device contract manufacturers and suppliers), Mitchell said Messe Düsseldorf “wouldn’t be opposed” to the idea, but it’s not on the drawing board at the moment.
“If there’s a need and customers liked this event and they want to do something like that, we might consider it. But it’s not a focus for us the first time, nor is it a short-term focus for us going forward,” he said.
For more information about attending, exhibiting, pricing, conference content and more, visit www.medicalworldamericas.com.
Editor’s note: Medical Product Outsourcing and its sister publication Orthopedic Design & Technology are media sponsors for Medical World Americas. We will have daily online news coverage of the inaugural event.
industry will be “goin’ back to Houston, Houston, Houston” later this month. Whether medtech professionals are goin’ back to Texas’ largest city for the fifth time, exploring the town as a new visitor, or count themselves among local longhorns, participants in the upcoming Medical World Americas (MWA) Conference and Exposition will experience a first-time event.
Program planners told Medical Product Outsourcing that the inaugural program has attracted approximately 110 exhibitors who will showcase their medical devices, technologies, products and services; the overall event is expected to attract nearly 2,000 attendees.
Medical World Americas, which is slated to become an annual event, will be held later this month, April 28-30, at the George R. Brown Convention Center.
Messe Düsseldorf, organizers of Medica—the world’s largest medical conference—partnered with the Texas Medical Center and the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) to create Medical World Americas.
In addition to its behemoth flagship event in Germany every fall, Messe Düsseldorf has organized Medica-branded healthcare events in Brazil, China, Russia and Singapore, just to name a few. But this is the first event created for North America.
Attendee registration continues to grow, the show’s planners report, with participants from 31 states and 29 countries already signed up. Currently, more than 30 percent of registrants are from outside the United States, with 10 percent coming from nearby Mexico, according to figures cited by the Greater Houston CVB. In keeping with a theme of international outreach, there currently are eight country pavilions slated for the exhibit floor.
“Medical World Americas is a continuation of our efforts at the Greater Houston CVB to help build conventions and events around Houston’s core industries,” said Greg Ortale, president and CEO of the convention and visitors bureau. “This partnership with the organizers of Medica has enabled us to capitalize on the strength of our healthcare sector and craft a conference that will become a ‘must attend’ for medical professionals across the Americas.”
According to Tom Mitchell, president of Messe Düsseldorf North America based in Chicago, Ill., MWA has been a few years in the making.
“We were approached several years ago by Houston’s CVB and the Texas Medical Center, and they had a goal to bring a healthcare conference to showcase Houston and its first-class medical facilities,” Mitchell told MPO. “The Texas Medical Center is a vast, state-of-the-art facility, with 100,000 people working there, and the city wanted to raise its profile, so they talked to us about doing something like Medica in Houston. After they approached us, we began to discuss the idea and refine it.”
Mitchell said that at one point early on there had been “very informal” talks with a few other medical device clusters in the United States but that Houston and the Texas Medical Center were the first to pitch a “real plan” to his organization.
“We want to grow this into something that is more horizontal rather than vertical like so many of the other U.S. healthcare and medtech events and give our customers the chance to attend something in this market that isn’t necessarily focused on one particular ‘ology’ but is a place where you can meet a broad range of specialists and experts in different fields,” Mitchell said. “Part of the formula is to build the conference around topics that tackle the current events in the industry, issues important to the healthcare community, based on recommendations from our advisory committee. There are lots of great shows, but they tend to be more narrowly focused. I think this—our model—is something that is hard to find in the [United] States.”
The Conference Component
The executive advisory committee that Mitchell mentioned is chaired by Robert Robbins, M.D., CEO of the Texas Medical Center. Robbins leads an eight-member team of physicians representing a number of medical disciplines. In addition to Robbins, members include: Ronald DePinho, M.D., president of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; James Duke, M.D., professor, Department of Surgery, the University of Texas Medical School; Russel W.H. Kridel, M.D., president, Harris County Medical Society; Kenneth L. Mattox, M.D., distinguished service professor, Baylor College of Medicine; Michael Shabot, M.D., chief medical officer, Memorial Hermann Healthcare System; James T. Willerson, M.D., president and medical director of the Texas Heart Institute; and William Zoghbi, M.D., professor of medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, Methodist DeBakey Cardiology Associates.
Mitchell said that for the committee and show planners, the challenge was to create an agenda that would resonate with a broad range of conference-goers.
“The advisory board has chosen really engaging topics and has reached out to a roster of incredible speakers,” Mitchell said. “It’s pretty impressive. It’s something that differentiates us, especially as a first-time event, which always takes a lot more work. But we are really second to none with the kinds of medical talent that will be presented. We have the kinds of speakers that will attract a wide range of practitioners—the doctors and nurses. In turn, those are the kinds of people that the exhibitors and other medtech professionals want to see. Our goal is to bring these different groups together.”
The conference content is built on five “pillars”—the topics upon which the keynote addresses and plenary sessions will be based. They include cardiology, oncology, hospital disaster preparedness, healthcare-associated infections, and hospital occupational health and safety. The topics will change year after year, with the intersection of caregiver/healthcare provider and medical technology remaining a constant, Mitchell noted. The conference portion of the event also will provide healthcare practitioners the ability to earn continuing education credits.
“We set out to create a world-class conference program for Medical World Americas, and thanks to the hard work and expertise of our executive advisory committee, I believe we are well on our way to doing just that,” said Robbins. “We are eager to welcome attendees and exhibitors from across the globe and we are confident that this conference will create new opportunities and showcase the Texas Medical Center, Houston’s major medical institutions, and, of course, the city itself.”
The plenary session kicking off the first day (Monday, April 28, from 10:15-11:15 a.m.) is titled “Innovations Shaping the Future of Patient Care,” with panelists Including Dr. Robbins; Stephen N. Oesterle, M.D. senior vice president for medicine and technology at Minneapolis, Minn.-based Medtronic Inc.; Jack Gill, Ph.D., co-founder of San Jose, Calif.-based Vanguard Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm that invests in technology and life-science companies; and Brian Kelly, editor and chief content officer of U.S. News and World Report magazine.
The second day’s plenary session topics include “Big Data: Transforming Medicine” (Tuesday, April 29, 10:15-11:45 am). Speakers are Lynda Chin, M.D., chair, Department of Genomic Medicine, Division of Cancer Medicine, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; Eric Brown, director, Watson Technologies, IBM Watson Group; David Glazer, director of engineering for Google; and Paul C. Boutros, Ph.D., assistant professor, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. The second plenary session on day two is “Ensuring a Lifetime of High Performance in Surgical Practice: Infrastructure, Principles, Opportunities” (4:00-5:00 p.m.). The speaker is Barbara Lee Bass, M.D., director, Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation and Education in Houston.
Other general session topics throughout the three-day event of interest to clinicians and medtech professionals include: infections from medical devices; advances in imaging and vascular heart disease; radiomics and imaging genomics; advances in heart failure treatment; injection and sharps safety; personalized cancer therapy; treating arrhythmias; fatigue and healthcare professionals; hospital preparedness lessons; and many more.
“So many of the products that medical manufacturers make are going to be used in one or more of these specialties in the hospital and healthcare settings,” Mitchell said. “The conference and exhibit components of MWA connect the two groups [medtech providers and clinicians]. We want to give people an opportunity to showcase different products that are aimed at multiple fields and hear firsthand from the folks on the frontlines.”
Goals, Always Goals
For any first-time event—or regularly held conferences, too, come to think of it—show organizers want participants to leave at the end of the program having had a valuable experience. If you did your job, conference attendees will have broadened their education and professional networks, and exhibitors made good contacts and viable business leads.
For the organizers of this year’s MWA, the goals are no different.
“We want people to say, ‘OK, this is something that we have come to expect from the organizers of Medica.’ Many of the exhibitors have been to Medica or some of our other shows before, and we want this to have all the best of a Medica-branded event,” Mitchell said. “We think conference attendees and exhibitors will see this as something new, valuable and different—especially our international exhibitors, now that we can offer them a platform in the United States that we haven’t had up until now.”
He added, however, that Medical World Americas isn’t looking to replace other shows.
“People should evaluate MWA on its own merits, and once they come to Houston, the benefits will be evident,” Mitchell said.
When asked about whether future MWA events might include a Compamed-like event (Compamed is held concurrently with Medica in Germany, and it is an exhibition for medical device contract manufacturers and suppliers), Mitchell said Messe Düsseldorf “wouldn’t be opposed” to the idea, but it’s not on the drawing board at the moment.
“If there’s a need and customers liked this event and they want to do something like that, we might consider it. But it’s not a focus for us the first time, nor is it a short-term focus for us going forward,” he said.
For more information about attending, exhibiting, pricing, conference content and more, visit www.medicalworldamericas.com.
Editor’s note: Medical Product Outsourcing and its sister publication Orthopedic Design & Technology are media sponsors for Medical World Americas. We will have daily online news coverage of the inaugural event.