The largest annual trade fair in the world for medical technology and healthcare, held at the Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre and co-located with COMPAMED; the 2026 edition runs 16 to 19 November across roughly eighteen halls, from devices, diagnostics and laboratory equipment to digital health, clinical AI and robotics, with a multi-track forum programme included in the visitor ticket.
MEDICA is the annual trade fair for the medical technology and healthcare industry, held every November at the Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre and billed by its organiser as the largest event of its kind in the world. It covers the full medtech chain: medical devices and surgical equipment, laboratory equipment and diagnostics, physiotherapy and orthopaedic technology, commodities and consumables, health IT, digital health, clinical AI, robotics and nursing and elderly care. It is a trade-only fair, closed to the general public, and it is co-located with COMPAMED, the fair for suppliers and components to medical device manufacturers, which runs on the same dates and site. The 2026 edition runs 16 to 19 November 2026. Its themes for this edition centre on AI and generative AI in clinical settings, robotics in healthcare, telemedicine and integrated care, the hospital of the future, the European Health Data Space, digital twins, precision diagnostics and cybersecurity. Source: medica-tradefair.com and medica-tradefair.com/en/Visit/Facts_Figures, consulted 18 September 2026.
MEDICA 2026 runs Monday 16 to Thursday 19 November 2026. The venue is the Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre (Messe Düsseldorf), Stockumer Kirchstrasse 61, 40474 Düsseldorf, Germany. Halls in use are 1, 3 to 7.0, 7a, 7.1, 10 to 12 and 15 to 17. Opening hours are 10:00 to 18:00 from Monday to Wednesday and 10:00 to 16:00 on the Thursday, so the last day closes two hours early. COMPAMED occupies its own halls on the same site and dates. MEDICA runs annually in November; no 2027 dates were published as of 18 September 2026. Source: medica-tradefair.com/en/Visit/Preparation/Opening_hours, consulted 18 September 2026.
MEDICA is organised by Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, the trade fair company that owns and operates the Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre, and which also runs COMPAMED alongside it. General enquiries go to info@medica.de. Messe Düsseldorf operates the MEDICA brand internationally as well, through regional editions run by its subsidiaries; see the entry on other editions below. Source: medica-tradefair.com and the database record, consulted 18 September 2026.
The organiser expects more than 78,000 professional visitors from around 160 countries at the 2026 edition. The 2025 edition, held 17 to 20 November 2025, drew roughly 80,000 visitors from 165 countries across MEDICA and COMPAMED combined, 76 percent of them from outside Germany, and the organiser's own visitor survey put about 71 percent of respondents in senior or middle management. Admission is restricted to trade visitors: hospital and clinic buyers and directors, physicians and clinical staff, laboratory and diagnostics professionals, medical device distributors and importers, health IT and digital health teams, procurement and supply chain managers, and manufacturers sourcing components through the co-located COMPAMED. Proof of professional affiliation is required at registration. Source: medica-tradefair.com/en/Visit/Facts_Figures, consulted 18 September 2026.
The documented change for 2026 is closer integration with COMPAMED, which the organiser describes as part of a longer-term strategy combining further international expansion with an interdisciplinary approach spanning science, technology, practice and policy; in 2026 the two fairs are presented as more connected than in previous years rather than as neighbours sharing a site. On the content side, the MEDICA INNOVATION FORUM's 2026 theme list adds resilience and cyber security, Hospital@Home, generative AI and the European Health Data Space to the established robotics, big data, digital twins and precision medicine strands. The MEDICA START-UP COMPETITION reaches its fifteenth edition in 2026. Source: medica-tradefair.com/en/Program/Forums_Stages/MEDICA_INNOVATION_FORUM and medica-tradefair.com news pages, consulted 18 September 2026.
The forum and stage programme is included in the trade fair ticket and runs in parallel with the exhibition. The MEDICA INNOVATION FORUM holds a full-day programme on 17 November 2026 with more than 120 speakers across several formats, on smart medtech in clinical settings, resilience and cyber security, Hospital@Home, generative AI, robotics, big data and the European Health Data Space, digital twins, precision medicine, the future of medtech manufacturing, and new therapeutic approaches. The MEDICA CONNECTED HEALTHCARE FORUM runs the digital health and connected care track and hosts the MEDICA App COMPETITION. The fifteenth MEDICA START-UP COMPETITION holds its pitch finals on the MEDICA MAIN STAGE on Tuesday 17 November 2026, selecting the "Top Medical Start-ups 2026" in AI in medicine, robotics, laboratory diagnostics, resilience including cybersecurity, and digital health. The HEALTHCARE INNOVATION WORLD CUP runs alongside the innovation forum. A complete named speaker roster was not published in indexed sources as of 18 September 2026. Source: medica-tradefair.com/en/Program/Forums_Stages/MEDICA_INNOVATION_FORUM and the START-UP COMPETITION pages, consulted 18 September 2026.
Four, and they are priced as one. The exhibition floor across roughly eighteen halls is the core, and for most trade visitors it takes most of the time. The forums and stages, principally the MEDICA INNOVATION FORUM, the MEDICA CONNECTED HEALTHCARE FORUM and the MEDICA MAIN STAGE, run conference-style sessions inside the halls, and all are included in the trade fair ticket rather than sold separately, which is the single most useful budgeting fact about this event. Pitch competitions, the MEDICA START-UP COMPETITION and the MEDICA App COMPETITION, run as staged finals rather than as open tracks. The MEDICA START-UP PARK is a special show format, an area grouping around 100 start-ups. The database records no organiser-run B2B matchmaking service and no advance meeting scheduling tool for this event, so exhibitor meetings are arranged directly. Source: medica-tradefair.com/en/Program and the database record, consulted 18 September 2026.
The main parallel event is COMPAMED, the fair for suppliers, components and services to medical device manufacturers, co-located at the Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre on the same 16 to 19 November 2026 dates. Taken together, MEDICA and COMPAMED gather around 5,300 exhibiting companies. Whether one visitor ticket admits to both fairs was not confirmed in the sources checked and should be verified before buying (unverifiable information). Inside MEDICA itself, the MEDICA START-UP PARK, with around 100 start-ups, functions as a special show rather than a side event. No independent city-wide fringe programme was found in indexed sources for the 2026 edition. Source: medica-tradefair.com/en/Exhibit/Information/At_a_glance and medica-tradefair.com/en/Program/Special_shows_more/MEDICA_START-UP_PARK_1, consulted 18 September 2026.
Exact euro prices for the 2026 edition were not published in the sources reachable on this pass. What is documented: tickets are sold through the official ticket shop at medica-tradefair.com/en/Visit/Preparation/Tickets_vouchers, as eTickets; the range runs from a one-day ticket to a four-day pass; online tickets are cheaper than tickets bought on site and admit without queueing; admission is trade-only, so registration requires proof of professional affiliation. Third-party listings put the span at roughly USD 49 to USD 259 from a one-day digital ticket to a four-day on-site pass (unverifiable information), which is a conversion published by a resale-adjacent site rather than the organiser's own euro tariff, and should not be quoted as the official price. All forums and stages are included in the trade fair ticket, so the headline price is the whole cost of the content programme. Press accreditation is free. Searched: the official ticket shop page, the tickets and vouchers page and the visitor preparation pages. Source: medica-tradefair.com/en/Visit/Preparation/Tickets_vouchers, consulted 18 September 2026.
There is no general open call for forum speakers. The one documented competitive route onto a MEDICA stage is the MEDICA START-UP COMPETITION, now in its fifteenth edition, which selects start-ups to pitch on the MEDICA MAIN STAGE on 17 November 2026; participation is free and the registration deadline for the 2026 edition was 10 September 2026 at 23:59, which has passed as of this fiche's verification date. The MEDICA App COMPETITION offers the same kind of route through the MEDICA CONNECTED HEALTHCARE FORUM. For the INNOVATION FORUM's main programme, more than 120 speakers appear in 2026, and the selection reads as curated by the organiser and its programme partners; no application form, selection criteria or speaker fee policy is publicly disclosed. The practical route for a speaking enquiry is the organiser's press and programme contacts. Source: medica-tradefair.com/en/Program/Forums_Stages/MEDICA_START-UP_STAGE/MEDICA_START-UP_COMPETITION, consulted 18 September 2026.
Exhibitors apply through the exhibitor pages at medica-tradefair.com/en/Exhibit, and the binding terms sit in the Conditions of Participation for MEDICA 2026, published as a PDF in the download centre. Stand space rates per square metre for the 2026 edition were not retrievable in the sources reachable on this pass, so a prospective exhibitor should treat the Conditions of Participation document as the authoritative price and terms reference. Start-ups have a distinct and cheaper route: the MEDICA START-UP PARK groups around 100 of them in a shared area at a package rate rather than at full stand cost. No separate sponsorship tier ladder of the conference kind was found; as with most Messe Düsseldorf fairs, MEDICA sells exhibition space and special-show packages rather than named sponsorship tiers. Source: medica-tradefair.com/en/Exhibit/Information/Download_center and the 2026 Conditions of Participation, consulted 18 September 2026.
Not publicly disclosed, and structurally so: MEDICA is a rented-space trade fair rather than a sponsored conference, so there is no headline sponsor, no tier ladder and no partner page. What exists instead is the exhibitor directory at medica-tradefair.com, which lists the paying participants, more than 4,821 of them expected from 70 countries for 2026, or around 5,300 counting the co-located COMPAMED. The database holds no official media partner list for this event, so no mention in this fiche carries a "(media partner)" marker. Searched: the official site, the programme pages and the exhibitor index. Source: medica-tradefair.com exhibitor directory and medica-tradefair.com/en/Exhibit/Information/At_a_glance, consulted 18 September 2026.
Medical device and diagnostics manufacturers dominate, with a heavy international skew. The 2026 edition expects more than 4,821 exhibitors from 70 countries; the 2025 edition drew roughly 5,000 exhibitors from 72 countries. By category the floor runs across electro-medical equipment and medical technology, laboratory equipment and diagnostics, physiotherapy and orthopaedic technology, commodities and consumables, information and communication technology, and medical services and publications. The co-located COMPAMED adds the upstream supplier layer: components, materials, microtechnology and contract manufacturing for device makers. Digital health and clinical AI companies are a fast-growing but still minority presence relative to the hardware and consumables base, concentrated in the connected healthcare halls and the start-up park rather than spread across the floor. Source: medica-tradefair.com/en/Visit/Facts_Figures and medica-tradefair.com/en/Exhibit/Information/At_a_glance, consulted 18 September 2026.
Journalists accredit online in advance through the press pages at medica-tradefair.com and download the accreditation document themselves, which gives direct entry without an on-site counter visit. Messe Düsseldorf's accreditation guidelines, published as a PDF covering all its fairs, set the eligibility conditions. Accredited journalists work from the Press Center on the first floor of the Administration building, reachable from the building foyer, which offers quiet workstations with PCs and printers, free WiFi and press services. Two practical benefits come with the press ticket: free parking in car park P4 on Stockumer Kirchstrasse, and a free Düsseldorf public transport ticket valid across the city for the duration of the fair. Press team contacts are Michael Vellen, Senior Manager Press and PR, +49 211 4560 990, VellenM@messe-duesseldorf.de, and Daniela Nickel, Manager Press and PR, +49 211 4560 545, NickelD@messe-duesseldorf.de. No accreditation deadline is published. Source: medica-tradefair.com/en/Press/Services_for_journalists/Press_team and messe-duesseldorf.de accreditation guidelines, consulted 18 September 2026.
Coverage concentrates in medical and health management trade media rather than general press: HealthManagement.org carries an event listing and reporting, Spinal Surgery News and comparable specialist outlets cover the edition, and device manufacturers such as Esaote publish their own MEDICA presence pages, which are exhibitor marketing rather than journalism. The organiser runs an extensive press operation of its own, with a press material library, a newsflash series and a press team of named contacts, and most numeric claims that circulate about MEDICA, including the visitor and exhibitor counts used in this fiche, originate in that material. MEDICA also has a long-standing Wikipedia entry, which is the most consulted independent summary of the fair. The database holds no official media partner list for this event, so no mention in this fiche carries a "(media partner)" marker. Source: the items named above and medica-tradefair.com/en/Media_News/Press/Press_material, consulted 18 September 2026.
Three qualifications. First, the headline figures are organiser figures and are routinely quoted without their qualifier: the roughly 80,000 visitors and around 5,000 exhibitors reported for 2025 are MEDICA and COMPAMED combined, the 78,000 and 4,821 attached to 2026 are forecasts for MEDICA alone, and the two pairs are regularly mixed in third-party write-ups. Second, the 71 percent senior and middle management share comes from the organiser's own visitor survey, not from an independent audit, and self-selected survey response tends to flatter seniority. Third, a large share of what surfaces in search for "MEDICA 2026" is exhibitor announcement copy, stand-builder marketing and hotel resale, not reporting; the USD ticket range circulating on aggregator sites is an example, and it is not the organiser's tariff. Against that, the organiser publishes hall allocations, opening hours and country counts in checkable detail, and its figures are broken down by country of origin rather than given as round totals. Source: cross-reading of medica-tradefair.com/en/Visit/Facts_Figures against the third-party items named above, 18 September 2026.
Anyone without a trade credential, first of all: MEDICA does not admit the general public, and registration asks for proof of professional affiliation. Beyond that, the fair suits sourcing and buying far better than it suits learning. A digital health founder with no hardware or clinical distribution angle will find the relevant content confined to a few halls and stages inside a fair whose centre of gravity is devices, consumables and laboratory equipment. A researcher looking for peer-reviewed science should prefer a clinical congress: the forum programme is practitioner and industry oriented, not an academic one. A speaker looking for a stage should note that the only open route closed on 10 September 2026 and applies to start-ups alone. And anyone hoping to cover the floor properly in a single day should reconsider the trip: roughly eighteen halls and close to five thousand exhibitors do not fit into one 10:00 to 18:00 day. Source: medica-tradefair.com, consulted 18 September 2026.
It is the November anchor and the largest fixture of the year in EMEA health. In the digital health calendar specifically, MEDICA sits at the opposite pole from the spring policy and health IT events: DMEA in Berlin in April owns the German health IT and hospital digitisation audience, HIMSS Europe serves health system leadership, and Frontiers Health in Berlin in October serves the digital therapeutics and health innovation community at a fraction of the size. MEDICA's distinguishing feature against all of them is the sourcing floor: it is the only event of the year where the clinical AI and connected care conversation happens inside the building where devices, diagnostics and consumables are actually bought, with the component supply chain co-located next door in COMPAMED. For a buyer who can attend one European health event a year, that combination is the argument. Source: medica-tradefair.com and the EventsIndex digital health registry, consulted 18 September 2026.
Messe Düsseldorf operates a family of regional medical fairs under and alongside the MEDICA brand through its international subsidiaries, in markets including Asia, India and the Middle East. The specific 2026 and 2027 dates, cities and brand names of those regional editions could not be confirmed from the sources reachable on this pass, so they are not listed here rather than listed wrongly (unverifiable information). The Düsseldorf edition is the original and by a wide margin the largest, and it is the one this fiche documents. A reader needing the regional calendar should consult messe-duesseldorf.com, which lists the group's events worldwide. Source: medica-tradefair.com and messe-duesseldorf.com, consulted 18 September 2026.
German and English. The fair operates bilingually: the official site, the exhibitor directory and signage are published in both, and the forum and stage programme runs largely in English, which is the working language of the international forums. No simultaneous interpretation into further languages is documented, and no per-session language guarantee is published, so a visitor who needs English-only content should check the session listing rather than assume it. Source: medica-tradefair.com, consulted 18 September 2026.
Not publicly disclosed as an organiser-run offer for 2026. No livestream, virtual pass or on-demand session archive for the forums was found in the sources reachable on this pass, and the database records no digital platform and no replay access for this event. What does exist after the fact is the organiser's own output: press material, a newsflash series and video and article coverage on medica-tradefair.com, all of it marketing rather than session content. Searched: the official programme pages, the press services pages and the visitor preparation pages. Source: medica-tradefair.com, consulted 18 September 2026.
Not publicly disclosed for visitor tickets in the sources reachable on this pass. Exhibitor cancellation terms are set out in the Conditions of Participation for MEDICA 2026, published as a PDF in the organiser's download centre, which is the binding document for exhibiting companies; its specific cancellation schedule was not retrieved. For visitors, the practical points that are documented concern the ticket type rather than refunds: tickets are eTickets bought through the official shop, and admission requires proof of trade status, so a ticket bought by someone who cannot show that proof is at risk at the door. Searched: the ticket shop, the tickets and vouchers page and the download centre. Source: medica-tradefair.com/en/Visit/Preparation/Tickets_vouchers and the 2026 Conditions of Participation, consulted 18 September 2026.
Provision is documented at site level by Messe Düsseldorf rather than per event, in an accessibility page and a barrier-free guide published as a PDF. The U78 and U79 underground lines are reachable by lift from the underground level of the main railway station, giving step-free access from the city centre. Visitors heading for the East or South Entrance or the Congress Center change at Messe Ost/Stockumer Kirchstrasse onto bus 722. Wheelchairs can be borrowed from the first aid station at the North Entrance, by asking a member of staff or using one of the hall telephones; the organiser urges booking one in advance rather than relying on availability on the day. Specific provisions for MEDICA itself, such as companion tickets, reduced rates or quiet rooms, were not documented in the sources reachable on this pass. Source: messe-duesseldorf.com accessibility page and the barrier-free guide PDF, consulted 18 September 2026.
The Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre is at Stockumer Kirchstrasse 61, 40474 Düsseldorf, north of the city centre. The most useful fact for an arriving visitor is the airport link: the U80 runs directly from the Düsseldorf Airport terminal to Messe Ost/Stockumer Kirchstrasse, so there is no need to route through the main station. From the city, the U78 serves the MERKUR SPIEL-ARENA/Messe Nord entrance, and Messe Ost/Stockumer Kirchstrasse is served by the U78, U79 and U80 lines and by bus 722. Which stop to use depends on the entrance: Messe Nord for the North Entrance, Messe Ost for the East and South Entrances and the Congress Center. Accredited journalists park free in car park P4 on Stockumer Kirchstrasse and receive a free city public transport ticket with their press pass. Source: medica-tradefair.com/en/Home/Arrival_Public_transport and messe-duesseldorf.com/arrival, consulted 18 September 2026.
Most events of this scale sell the floor cheaply and the content dearly: a trade fair pass gets you the stands, and a conference pass, often several times the price, gets you the sessions. MEDICA does not split them. The forums and stages, the INNOVATION FORUM's day-long programme with more than 120 speakers on 17 November, the CONNECTED HEALTHCARE FORUM, the MAIN STAGE pitch finals, are all included in the trade fair ticket. That single decision explains the visitor profile better than any attendance figure: it means a hospital buyer, a procurement manager and a clinical AI founder all pay the same modest entry price and sit in the same rooms, which is why the organiser's own survey finds roughly 71 percent of respondents in senior or middle management without the event ever having to price for seniority. It also explains why the forum programme reads as practitioner-oriented rather than academic: nobody has paid a conference fee that would need justifying with a certificate.
The numbers are not wrong, but the two events behind them get merged. The roughly 80,000 visitors from 165 countries reported for 2025 is a MEDICA plus COMPAMED figure, as is the roughly 5,000 exhibitors and the 5,300 exhibiting companies quoted for 2026. The forecasts attached to MEDICA alone are more than 78,000 visitors and more than 4,821 exhibitors, and the gap between the two pairs is smaller than the difference between an actual count and a forecast, which is what makes the merge easy to miss. The 76 percent international share and the 71 percent management share both come from the organiser, the second from its own visitor survey, where self-selection tends to flatter seniority. The parts of the record that hold up are the operational ones, because they are falsifiable on the day: the hall list, the 10:00 to 16:00 Thursday close, the U80 running from the airport terminal to Messe Ost. A buyer planning a trip should build the plan on those and treat the totals as scale rather than as measurement.
Official site: medica-tradefair.com. Facts and figures: medica-tradefair.com/en/Visit/Facts_Figures. Opening hours: medica-tradefair.com/en/Visit/Preparation/Opening_hours. Tickets: medica-tradefair.com/en/Visit/Preparation/Tickets_vouchers. Programme, forums and stages: medica-tradefair.com/en/Program/Forums_Stages/MEDICA_INNOVATION_FORUM. Start-up competition: medica-tradefair.com/en/Program/Forums_Stages/MEDICA_START-UP_STAGE/MEDICA_START-UP_COMPETITION. Start-up park: medica-tradefair.com/en/Program/Special_shows_more/MEDICA_START-UP_PARK_1. Exhibiting information and download centre: medica-tradefair.com/en/Exhibit/Information/Download_center. Press services: medica-tradefair.com/en/Press/Services_for_journalists/Press_team. Arrival: medica-tradefair.com/en/Home/Arrival_Public_transport. Venue and accessibility: messe-duesseldorf.com/arrival. General enquiries: info@medica.de.