From 17 to 20 November 2025, the international trade fair MEDICA for medical technology and healthcare took place in Düsseldorf. With several thousand exhibitors from almost 70 countries, MEDICA is one of the largest medical B2B trade fairs worldwide.
NRW Minister Laumann visits the inIT stand
The Institute Industrial IT (inIT) at Technische Hochschule OWL was represented in Hall 3 at the joint stand of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where it presented the PD-Assist smartphone app. The application for Parkinson's patients was developed in cooperation with OWL University Hospital, Clinic for Neurology and Neurogeriatrics, headed by Prof. Dr. Christoph Redecker, Campus Klinikum Lippe. The interdisciplinary research team of Frauke Wiegräbe and Patrick Gaudl from the Discrete Systems research group headed by Prof. Dr. Volker Lohweg was particularly pleased to welcome Karl-Josef Laumann, Minister of Labour, Health and Social Affairs of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. The Minister spoke to the scientific inIT staff about the research and development of the Parkinson's app and welcomed the use of the digital support tool as part of user-centred healthcare for those affected in OWL.
Technical article published on MEDICA
On 18 November 2025, Dr. Christoph-Alexander Holst (research group leader of the Discrete Systems research group) and Patrick Gaudl also took an active part in the supporting programme at this year's MEDICA and reported on the current status of app development in their own technical article.
Research for the people of the region
"Our goal is to ensure that innovative technical solutions are designed with the user in mind so that reliable healthcare can be guaranteed for those affected and their families. Here in the OWL region, we are well on the way to achieving this with our long-standing and outstanding cooperation partners," summarised Frauke Wiegräbe and Patrick Gaudl after four successful days at the trade fair.