Basic medical research and the innovative and technological medical industry meet in Verona to outline the future of Italian medicine with the aim of developing a prospective operational context that scientifically allows for the reduction of the mortality rates of the population and improve people's quality of life. The occasion will be the first edition of Innovabiomed, a network place for the medical industry which will be held on 23 and 24 January at the Fiera di Verona.
Innovabiomed was conceived as a meeting and discussion place to stimulate reflection on new developments and new applications of the most recent discoveries, connecting the world of research and the world of production.
"Until today, our research and our biomedical industry, while recording levels of excellence that are recognized all over the world, have in a certain sense traveled on parallel tracks, occasionally finding points of interdisciplinary convergence for exceptional situations, explains prof . Carlo Adami, creator of Innovabiomed, internationally renowned vascular surgeon who in 1994 implanted in Verona, for the first time in Europe, the first aortic endoprosthesis, a practice that changed the way of dealing with vascular surgery through non- which have led to a reduction in hospitalization times and have extended the treatment to all those categories of patients who would never have been able to face bloody operations and who were therefore able to benefit from an extension of life. with the prof. Adami of the scientific committee also includes two high personalities of Italian medical science, prof. Gianpaolo Tortora who together with prof. Claudio Bassi has made the Verona hospital one of the world's reference points for the cures and surgical treatments of pancreatic cancer, one of the most fearsome neoplasms which until recently left little hope of life and to prof. Gino Gerosa, one of the greatest Italian cardiac surgeons, the first to have implanted a "CardioWest" in Italy, i.e. an artificial heart formed by two polyurethane chambers, totally implantable (TAH, Total Artificial Heart).
In practice, Innovabiomed therefore marks a new course, creating a meeting point for the world of research and that of industry which from now on will have a place where they can meet to outline feasible future scenarios involving all the protagonists of the different areas scientific-technological: from physics to mechanics, from biology to materials science, from clinical engineering to electronics. In Verona we will talk about materials, components, technologies and services, potentially applicable to any medical specialty, nanomedicine and nanotechnologies in the treatment of pathologies, medical-surgical aids, active and passive implantable devices, prostheses and orthopedic systems , of medical and diagnostic equipment and instruments, opening up to the new frontiers of research made possible by the experiences gained in space expeditions with particular reference to 3D printing.
In this future and futuristic world square of medicine, together with doctors, managers, engineers, physicists, chemists, researchers, lawyers, economics and finance professionals and, more generally, those who work directly or indirectly with specific or collateral skills will also intervene around the complex matter of biotechnological innovations thus inaugurating a new way of systematically tackling, as never happened in the past, the most important challenges that present themselves on the horizon of medicine.
Innovabiomed was born with the organization of the Verona Fair, of the Mirandola district, known as the "Italian Biomedical Silicon Valley" considered the first dedicated district in Europe and the second in the world and of the RPM Media Srl Group. It is certainly no coincidence that this new page of medicine opens in Italy. In this field, our country has something to say at an international level: we are leaders in the sector characterized by high technology and a rapid rate of innovation which rests its foundations solidly on a market worth 10 billion euros and 70.000 employees, of which 7,3, 2016% employed in research and innovation. Specifically, in 4.480, the Assobiomedica observatory surveyed 69 companies active in the sector. 83% of companies and over XNUMX% of turnover are concentrated in five regions: Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna where the Mirandolese Biomedical District is located in the northern area of the province of Modena, Lazio, Veneto which can count on centers of excellence with a system of companies with high technological specialization and a strong impact on the regional system that cover many areas of application such as biotechnology, diagnostics, dentistry, consumables, orthopedics and optics and Tuscany.
An extremely promising production sector with companies investing around 1,1 billion euros in research and innovation (7% of turnover). with double-digit growth forecasts (a +18,1% expected in 2019) for the next few years. A sector that has registered almost 350 start-ups, of which 44% originated as spin-offs of public research: very 'young' industries, therefore with an average age of 6 years. For the record, the largest number of start-ups is active in the advanced diagnostics sector (35%), the other areas of activity are oncology (10%), cardiovascular (8%), nutraceuticals (8%), degenerative medicine (7%).
And Innovabiomed essentially looks at this growth in the awareness that the made in Italy in this sector (exports increased by 4,8% compared to 2015 for a value of 4,9 billion euros) still has many possibilities for development and expansion on international markets.
