According to recent reports, the European medical laboratory market is expected to reach U.S. $15.5 billion by 2024 and the laboratory market industry is projected to show annual growth rates averaging approximately two per cent for laboratory services up to 2020. This assessment is based on analyses for countries such as Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway and Portugal, which show that the European laboratory market trends display a constant growth.
Placing the spotlight on this rapidly expanding and evolving market is the second edition of MEDLAB Europe 2018 that is set to take place from October 2 to 4 at the Fira Barcelona-Gran Via, Barcelona, Spain. The platform will present a unique opportunity for global laboratory industry leaders, including manufacturers, dealers and distributors, to make their presence felt in the European market.
The show brings leading international exhibitors under one roof, covers 2,000 sqm of exhibition space, and provides visitors an opportunity to access cutting-edge medical laboratory products, next-generation technology, innovative services and world-class educational content. More than 3,000 industry professionals and over 120 exhibiting companies are expected to attend the second edition of one of Europe’s leading events for laboratory management and diagnosis.
Both exhibitors and visitors can look forward to a complete range of products, services and solutions for the medical laboratory industry, at the show. It is a central meeting point to witness the latest innovations and learn about the current and future industry trends in the laboratory sector.
Furthermore, the show acts as a marketplace where interested parties can place orders to equip their medical facilities with the latest products available on the market. Visitors can also gain valuable insights by attending one of the scientific conferences and hear from renowned scientists and clinicians from around the globe.
European Lab-testing Ecosystem
Keeping up-to-date with the latest industry trends emerging from within the medical laboratory industry is critical to the lab professional, particularly in Europe, where the In-Vitro Diagnostics (IVD), clinical laboratory, molecular diagnostics and Point-of-Care Testing (POCT) markets are some of the fastest growing in the world.
The regulations around medical and IVD devices in Europe are also evolving, which involves important improvements to modernise the current system including risk-classification, improved transparency and new rules on clinical evidence. Under these new regulations, the classification of devices is based on risk and manufacturers need to demonstrate that their medical device meets the requirements by carrying out a conformity assessment.
Plus, thanks to the latest advancements in health tech, the European medical laboratory-testing ecosystem has become safer, faster and more efficient, and technology and regulations are evolving to put patient safety and care at the heart of healthcare delivery.
Keeping these factors in mind, MEDLAB Europe is offering carefully tailored networking opportunities to all visitors, including medical laboratory and healthcare professionals, an insight into the latest information on instrumentation, applications and techniques used in laboratories and their management.
Multi-disciplinary Clinical Lab Conferences
Right from new methods of effective lab management to the development of techniques in detecting diseases, the MEDLAB Europe Congress 2018 will cover an extensive range of topics guaranteed to educate and enlighten all. The aim of the conferences at this edition is to discuss new methods of effective laboratory management to the development of techniques in detecting diseases, among other topical themes. These conferences are designed to cover an extensive range of topics guaranteed to educate and enlighten all.
The different conference tracks include: POCT, Immunology, Laboratory Management, Anatomic Pathology, Clinical Microbiology and Haematology. These have been accredited by the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME) with 15 European CME credits (ECMECs). Furthermore, the Advisory Board & Scientific Committee of the conferences comprises a team of renowned names from the industry, who have set forth an interesting agenda for the conferences.
These medical conferences will expose attendees to new ideas, discoveries, and regulations because medicine and methods are continuously developing. By learning current breakthroughs, doctors and even laboratory technicians can improve their practice and cure patients with recent technology, which can cure an illness efficiently. Also, healthcare providers can practice what they learn at the conferences and allows them to make the most of their newly acquired skills.
For instance, at the POCT conference, Dr. JL Bedini, Core Laboratory Head, at Hospital Clínic, Barcelona, will discuss key topics such as connectivity requirements and utility of POCT in the emergency department. This will help develop an understanding of rapid laboratory operations, instrumentation and test availability, and provide laboratory professionals the latest updates for better quality and turnaround time and POCT technology usage.
The Immunology conference, on the other hand, will aim to identify new discoveries in fundamental immunology, diagnostic and therapeutic options and will tackle challenges that arise from connecting fundamental and translational science. While at the Laboratory Management conference Dr. Ernesto Casis Sáenz, Director Clínic, Laboratoris Clínics, Hospital Universitari Vall d´Hebron, Barcelona, will address the new challenges in the management of the lab and how to encourage leadership for the future of the laboratory while also covering key challenges surrounding quality and reliability of test results.
The Anatomic Pathology conference will examine how to effectively facilitate and improve the rapid examination of surgical specimens and biopsies to deliver diagnoses allowing for immediate decisions regarding intraoperative and postoperative patient management. While the Clinical Microbiology conference will focus on the most current research related to the laboratory diagnosis of human infections, the role of the laboratory in both the management of infectious diseases and epidemiology of infections and the latest developments. Also, the Haematology Conference will discuss the role of laboratory testing and interpretations to aid in the diagnosis, staging, and prognosis of patients with haematologic malignancies and solid tumours.
The Automation Movement
The role of central labs has increasingly become quite critical to managing patients efficiently and allows labs to deliver quality data, speed and flexibility to complete projects on time and on budget. Laboratory automation is a multi-disciplinary strategy to research, develop, optimise and capitalise on technologies in the laboratory that enable new and improved processes.
Central laboratory testing offers ‘combinable data’, generated from the same analytic method platform to correlate and standardise results. The end product will, therefore, be similar regardless of the facility it came from.
Most of the tasks executed in a clinical lab today, from microplate handling to liquid handling, are achieved through lab automation and these processes handle routine tasks that were once performed by pathologists and lab technicians and help in achieving a fully traceable and standardised sample processing. Further, the convergence of the different disciplines of laboratory medicine is driving the movement forward and will allow lab automation to expand as well as connect to all the parts of the lab.
Automation has a number of benefits as it reduces the workload and turnaround time, increases the total number of tests done in less time, eliminates repetition and monotony from human life, thereby decreasing human error, improving accuracy and reproducibility, and uses a minimum amount of sample. Furthermore, automation solutions have now started to extend their footprints into other areas of the lab such as microbiology and molecular diagnostics.
Considering the increasing importance of lab automation, the Congress will hold a dedicated workshop on automation, along with topics such as next-generation sequencing and mass spectrometry. These three-hour workshops will be conducted in Spanish and have been carefully designed for laboratory technicians.
