conhIT

• Exhibitor numbers rise by 12 per cent, trade visitors by 20 per cent

• Increase in attendance from abroad

• Integrated event concept a success

• Next conhIT from 9 to 11 April 2013 in Berlin

Berlin, 27 April 2012. A 20 per cent rise in trade visitors, a 12 per cent increase in exhibitors and two fully booked exhibition halls: those are the preliminary results of this year’s conhIT – Connecting Healthcare IT, which closed its doors on Thursday in Berlin. More than 5,357 trade visitors from 46 countries, including high-ranking delegations from Europe, Saudi Arabia and Korea, came to conhIT to find out about the latest developments in Healthcare IT. The Industrial Fair, Congress, Academy and Networking Events all gave exhibitors and visitors daily opportunities to exchange views, broaden their knowledge and put forward their own topics.

“The exhibition halls and Congress rooms were filled to capacity on all three days of the event and the mood among exhibitors and visitors was very positive“, said Bernhard Calmer, Chairman of the Board of bvitg – German Association of Healthcare IT Vendors e.V., which five years ago founded conhIT. “The number of events over the three days was impressive. Whether at the Industrial Fair, the Congress, Academy, Innovation Forums or on the themed tours and hospital excursions – all the events were very well received. The level of political interest and involvement has also increased.”

Representing Messe Berlin – the organisers of conhIT – project manager Ursula Baumann added: “It is nice to receive so many positive comments from exhibitors and visitors. The significant rise in numbers from abroad, in terms of both visitors and companies, shows how important this event is to the industry.” The share of visitors from abroad rose by 15 per cent, doubling last year’s figure.

For gmds e.V. and BVMI e.V., the partners of conhIT, the event was also a resounding success.

“This year’s conhIT fulfilled our high expectations“, said a satisfied Dr. Carl Dujat, president of BVMI e.V. “The unique overall concept of this integrated industry event proved to be right and many individual meetings with visitors, exhibitors and organisers confirmed this. conhIT has finally come of age and established itself as the leading Healthcare IT event. That is an outstanding success.”

That impression was echoed by Prof. Dr. Peter Haas of gmds, president of the conhIT Congress: “With this year’s programme we were able to address all the target audiences and organise a Congress that focused on all the important topics in healthcare IT.“

“conhIT has grown to an impressive size. The only way it can still expand is by attracting new audiences and greater numbers from abroad“, added Prof. Dr. Paul Schmücker, 1st vice-president, gmds e.V. ”Events such as the career workshop, the job exchange and the get-together with students, young professionals and exhibitors were all very well received. One of the highlights was the presentation of the conhIT award for young professionals for the best diploma presenting practical ideas.“

bvitg e.V. and FÜRS LEBEN, a trust managed by Deutsche Stiftung Organtransplantation (DSO), took the opportunity at conhIT 2012 to provide information on donating organs. Every visitor receiving a ticket was also given an organ donor pass. The DSO provided information at its stand and talked about the trust’s new app at a panel discussion. “It is essential for us to have modern and reliable information technology“, said Prof. Dr. med. Günter Kirste , medical chairman of Deutsche Stiftung Organtransplantation. “We need it to ensure the successful and smooth coordination of organ donations and to maintain a permanent dialogue with hospitals.“ In the opinion of bvitg, one way to streamline the exchange of information would be to make an organ donor pass part of the electronic health card.

Comments by exhibitors

• Matthias Meierhofer, founder and board chairman, MEIERHOFER AG : “conhIT 2012 showed that MEIERHOFER with its process-oriented solutions has picked up on the right trends. Besides the ever-popular MCC.MOBILE, solutions for healthcare management, electronic prescription support and data protection are innovations which increasingly are being incorporated by hospitals. MEIERHOFER is a Gold Partner of conhIT because this industry event for healthcare IT has the right concept.“

• Simon Saatmann, managing director of Saatmann GmbH & Co. KG : “We were glad to be at this year’s conhIT and make use of the opportunities this industry event gave us. Our product innovations, such as new QS-Monitor versions for companies and associations, an app for QS-Monitor as well as other innovative changes to our tried and tested quality assurance products were very well received. As confirmed by the meetings on our stand, conhIT with its extensive range of events, the result of combining an Industrial Fair, Congress, Academy and Networking Events, is attracting even more visitors with an even greater degree of enthusiasm.“

• Daniel Diekmann, managing director, ID GmbH & Co. KGaA : “ID, now in its second year as a Gold Partner of conhIT, was very satisfied with the event. The overall concept directly addresses all the target audiences of importance to us. Furthermore, in business terms ID has been able to exploit recent years’ market trends, particularly where products for safe drug treatment, encoding and terminology servers are concerned. For us Berlin was the right place to establish our business. The combination of a Congress, Industrial Fair, Academy and Networking Events is the right one. However, the number of events should be reduced next year.”

• Tom Malessa, head of Public Relations, d.velop AG : “With so many meetings and the high number of decision-makers d.velop AG’s positive opinion of conhIT 2012 was confirmed after only the first two days .“

• Andreas Rehermann, head of Marketing, MMI GmbH : “Our first impression of this year’s conhIT was very positive. Over the last two days we had more visitors than last year and the high quality of our meetings was proof that conhIT is Germany’s leading event for this sector.

The next conhIT will take place on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds from 9 to 11 April 2013.

conhIT – Connecting Healthcare IT, 24 to 26 April 2012

conhIT targets decision-makers in IT departments, management, in the medical profession, nursing, doctors, doctors’ networks and medical care centres who need to find out about the latest developments in IT and healthcare, meet members of the industry and make use of opportunities for high-level advanced training. As an integrated event, over a period of three days conhIT combines an Industrial Fair, a Congress and Networking Events which are of particular interest to the industry. conhIT is organised in cooperation with the following industry associations: the German Association of Healthcare IT Vendors (bvitg), the German Association for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology (GMDS) and the German Association of Medical Computer Scientists (BVMI). The National Association of Hospital IT Managers (KH-IT) and the Working Group of Directors of Medical Computing Centres at German University Clinics (ALKRZ) have provided contributions to the subject matter. More details are available at www.conhit.com.

Press contacts:

Alexandra Gersing,

Bundesverband Gesundheits-IT - bvitg e.V. alexandra.gersing@bvitg.de; +49 30 / 310119-13

Wolfgang Wagner,

Messe Berlin GmbH,

wagner@messe-berlin.de; +49 30 / 30 38 22 77