Medical technology plays a key role in health and makes a contribution to improving quality of life. The spectrum of medical technology ranges from disposable products, IT-based applications to innovative technologies. In Baden-Württemberg, 836 companies are active in research, development and/or production in this field, making medical technology one of the most important economic sectors in the state.

Dossier - 20/12/2012

Medical technology serving healthcare

Modern healthcare would be impossible without medical technology. The achievements in medical technology are indispensable for our health and quality of life. The range of medical technology available covers surgical instruments and implants to diagnostic methods and medical devices.

Sustainable medical technology - 10/10/2024

Rethinking plastics in medical technology

Good healthcare relies heavily on medical products made from plastic. However, the widespread use of synthetic materials, particularly disposable items, creates vast amounts of waste, depletes resources and leads to a substantial carbon footprint. To create more environmentally friendly plastic products in the future, substantial changes to production processes are essential.

Waste recycling in the healthcare sector - 30/01/2024

Sustainability in medical technology: a particular challenge

Quality and safety of medical care are top priorities in the healthcare sector. However, this is often at the expense of climate protection, as not only are energy and raw material consumption very high, but so is the amount of waste generated due to the large number of disposable products. Sustainable product design and improved recycling strategies are therefore required to reduce waste and the CO2 footprint.

Research association - 24/07/2024

SPI-MP: pioneer in personalised medical technology

Every person is unique – even when they are ill. This is why many approaches to personalised medicine have been under development. The Stuttgart Partnership Initiative - Mass Personalization (SPI-MP), which focuses on basic research into fabrication and biomaterial technologies for personalised biomedical systems, is at the heart of such research work. The projects range from artificial knee joint cartilage to state-of-the-art stroke diagnostics.

High-tech - 20/10/2016

Industry 4.0 in the medical technology and pharmaceutical industry sectors

The digitalisation of industry affects the entire value chain. From individual products to digitising workflows in companies and connecting companies with clients and service providers via the Internet of Things – Industry 4.0 makes completely new manufacturing processes possible and requires new and specific business models.

The market for medical technology is innovative, dynamic, and growing. Bosch sees medical technology as a strategic growth field and intends to expand its Bosch Healthcare Solutions subsidiary, based in Waiblingen. Bosch has now entered into a new partnership with the German diagnostics solutions company R-Biopharm. This partnership will be focused on Bosch’s universal, fully automated Vivalytic molecular diagnostic analysis platform.

With clinical medicine and medical technology Heidelberg University is again among the best players in Medical Sciences worldwide. In the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2026 clinical medicine rose by one place over last year to rank 17th internationally in clinical medicine and so leads the field in Germany. Medical technology is in 21st place internationally and continues to be ranked third in Germany.

Article - 03/04/2019

HKK Bionics empowers hand gripping functions

A spin-off from the Ulm University of Applied Sciences is aiming to provide people whose hands have been paralysed due to accident or illness with a new kind of orthopaedic aid. Dominik Hepp and Tobias Knobloch are currently starting serial production of a hand orthosis prototype. The two medical engineers from Ulm, who founded HKK Bionics GmbH in 2017, plan to commence final tests in 2019.

Dossier - 19/08/2013

Telemedicine advances in high-tech healthcare

Increasing average longevity, the growing number of chronic diseases and health economy issues are all generating an ever-increasing demand for inexpensive therapy options that are not time - or location dependent. Telemedicine has been offering advanced solutions for a broad range of medical and health issues. Despite this progress, the use of telecommunication and information technologies in the provision of remote healthcare services appears…

This year Furtwangen University (HFU) is launching the “HFU Skills4MedTec” project to further enhance its profile as a leading authority in medical technology and to develop targeted scientific training courses for specialists and managers in the industry.

Festo is expanding its portfolio to include multilayer manifolds made of plastic (bonded manifolds) in order to be able to offer manufacturers of medical and laboratory equipment solutions from a single source. To this end, Festo is taking over the production systems and processes for manufacturing these complex plastic manifolds from Carville, a leading company in this field.

Robotics in medicine - 15/02/2024

Copied from the pangolin: innovative flexible miniature robot for minimally invasive applications

Wireless miniature robots that can penetrate hard-to-reach areas of the body for the purpose of medical treatment are currently still a vision of the future. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have now constructed the first flexible prototype modelled on the pangolin, which can generate heat and stop bleeding, kill tumour cells or release "cargo" in the model system.

Cyber Valley researchers have created medical educational tools that could potentially train the surgeons of the future, much like flight simulators train pilots. The team developed a range of artificial organ phantoms to serve as training platforms for surgeons. Thanks to the structured data of experienced medical professionals, a quantitative and objective assessment of a trainee’s skills can be assessed in real time.

How can you charge electric cars without plugging them into the power grid for hours on end? How can industrial robots be “refueled” during operation? And how does wireless energy transfer improve medical technology? These questions have occupied Prof. Nejila Parspour, Director of the Institute of Electrical Energy Conversion (IEW) at the University of Stuttgart, for more than twenty years.

Brain-computer interfaces can read neural signals and influence brain activity. We spoke with Pascal Fries about how this technology can benefit people with neurological and psychiatric conditions, future developments, and his views on ethical boundaries.

On May 17, 2024, aesco solutions, a leading group for production and development services (CDMO) for medical device companies, and D11Z. Ventures GmbH & Co. KG (formerly Zukunftsfonds Heilbronn) announce the closing of the acquisition of seleon GmbH.

On May 9, 2025, representatives from the life sciences industry in North Carolina and Baden-Württemberg met in Stuttgart for professional exchange. The goal of the event was to explore opportunities for collaboration in biotechnology, medical technology, and pharmaceutical research.

MEDICA and COMPAMED continue to develop in an extremely vital manner. The world's leading medical trade fair and the international No. 1 for the medical technology supply sector once again impressively underscored their positive results from the previous year with strong numbers – despite continuing adverse conditions. A significant increase in bookings on the part of the exhibiting companies was followed after four days by a marked increase…

Microfluidics in medical technology - 24/03/2021

Ultra-compact: valves with shape memory actuators

Karlsruhe-based company memetis shows that this is possible. Intelligent components for controlling fluids open up huge potential in the medical technology and biotechnology sectors - from vaccine development and cell line analysis to drug research and point-of-care solutions.