A three-day exhibition, HOSPIMedica India 2003, will be held at HITEX, Hyderabad's most advanced and latest fair grounds from February 14 to 16. Staged in India for the ninth time, this annual event is being organised by Messe Duesseldorf GmbH of Germany and their Indian subsidiary, CIDEX Trade Fairs Pvt. Ltd.

The exhibition will be inaugurated by AP Health Minister Dr Kodela Sivaprasada Rao at 9.45 am on Friday.

Along with the fair, there will be an Indian Health Congress being organized by FICCI highlighting the concerns of the medical and healthcare industry in the country. The show will be held in coordination with the Apollo Group of Hospitals.

Giving details of this first ever event in the south, Stephan Kuppers, Project Manager, International Trade Fairs, Messe Dusseidorf, said the exhibition and the Health Congress would bring together the entire network of medical professionals, hospitals, diagnostic centres and equipment manufacturers on a single platform to conduct meaningful business in the right environment.

The broad scope of the exhibition would cover areas like medical equipment, hospital supplies, diagnostics, disaster management and rehabilitation. Besides Indian companies there would be a sizable international participation. There would be group participation from Germany, Austria and China and individual participation from Israel, UK, Singapore, Russia, Hungary, France and Italy. The major Indian participants would include L&T Medical, Siemens India, Philips Medical Systems, the Dept of Atomic Energy, BD India, Reliance Life Sciences, B Braun Medical and BOC India.

Stephan Kuppers said Germany was one of the leading suppliers of hospital equipment to the world. The health industry, he said, was always researching, developing, upgrading and innovating itself and it was HOSPIMedica's aim to bring to India the latest happenings in this sector. The show will give an opportunity to the participants to interact with the best in the healthcare industry.

Sangita Reddy, managing director of Apollo Hospitals, said, “Earlier Indian hospital authorities and representatives used to go to Duesseldorf for the purchase of medical equipment. But now Duesseldorf itself comes to India with their stamp of highest quality every year.”

Apollo would be organising visits to their state-of-the-art hospital complex during the show. These visits would help the participants and delegates, especially those from abroad, to understand the functional mechanism and the nature of local requirements at Indian hospitals.