Christmas spirit

Every November, Germany hosts the Medica in Düsseldorf. Due to corona, there was no Medica in 2020 and last year there was a stripped-down version, but this year the fair was alive and kicking again.  More than 5,500 exhibitors and 123,000 visitors from 130 different countries were able to meet at the world's largest medical fair. Very impressive!

For Medisol too, the Medica is an important source of information and an annual  contact opportunity with every AED manufacturer. A great moment to physically meet each other again and discuss market developments.

Now you might think: What does such a fair have to do with the title of this column? Well, here's the thing:

As you may know, Medisol's main goal is to ensure that by 2030 everyone has an AED at their disposal within six minutes, this is often the story I tell when I first meet a manufacturer and that the company started from my work as an ICU and ambulance nurse and that the company's goal is to save as many lives as possible with AEDs.

When I told this same story to a new manufacturer, I realised that not everyone in our industry has saving human lives as a motive... After my story and some undefined non-verbal rubs of the forehead from the AED manufacturer's sales manager, he told me his motive: To make money. Make a lot of money.

Wow. I was speechless for a brief moment, but recovered just in time to avoid a painful silence. In the 20 years of our company's existence, this was actually the first time our market, which however you look at it is all about saving lives, had been viewed in such a cold and commercial way, with the impressive stories of family members left behind, who experience first hand the impact a sudden cardiac arrest can have.

Perhaps you need to have worked in healthcare to understand that. Or you need to have experienced something like that up close yourself. But as long as there are still AED manufacturers whose motivation is "making money", perhaps they should focus on sectors other than healthcare, where the focus is really all about people!

On behalf of the entire Medisol team, we wish you happy and above all, healthy holidays!