Smart Health Automation Summit startet im September

Under the theme “Rethinking Automation – Innovations for Healthcare,” the Smart Health Automation Summit will take place on 29 and 30 September 2026 at the Maritim Hotel Düsseldorf. Organised by VDMA and TEMA Technologie Marketing AG, the summit brings together leading voices from healthcare, nursing and care, mechanical engineering, technology, and public policy.

The event has a clear purpose: to make the potential of automated technologies tangible and to help shape the healthcare structures of tomorrow. The focus is not on theory alone, but on practical solutions, live applications, and direct exchange between the people building, using, funding, and regulating healthcare technology.

Healthcare is facing major structural pressures. Staffing shortages and continuously rising costs demand new approaches. The Smart Health Automation Summit addresses these challenges directly through four central themes:

• Future of healthcare: How innovation and automation can strengthen the long-term resilience of healthcare systems.
• Assistive robotics: Practical benefits for patients and staff in hospitals and care settings, from internal logistics to patient support.
• Business transformation: How traditional mechanical-engineering companies can evolve into solution providers and service partners for the healthcare economy.
• Policy and strategy: The regulatory conditions, market frameworks, and strategic decisions needed to accelerate industrial healthcare innovation.

The Smart Health Automation Summit is more than a conference. It is an interactive working platform where high-level keynotes and expert sessions are combined with an exhibition area showcasing current technologies and real-world applications.

For hospitals, care providers, and pharmacies, the summit offers direct insight into how automation can make processes more efficient, resilient, and less dependent on already overstretched staff. For manufacturers and service providers, it creates direct access to users, decision-makers, and political stakeholders—an opportunity to validate innovations, understand market needs, and bring solutions closer to practical deployment. For policymakers and payers, it provides essential visibility into technical developments and a forum to shape regulatory and strategic conditions for the future of healthcare.

As Edgar Mähringer-Kunz, Chairman of the VDMA HealthTech Working Group, puts it: “Only through the increased use of robotics and automation technology can the enormous challenges in healthcare provision be overcome.”

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