MEDICA 2026: The Complete Guide to Dates, Tickets, Halls & What to Expect

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Quick Answer: When is MEDICA 2026 and what is it? MEDICA 2026 runs Monday November 16 to Thursday November 19, 2026 at Messe Dusseldorf in Germany, at the same time as COMPAMED, the fair for medical technology suppliers and components. It is a B2B trade fair covering the full range of medical technology and healthcare products, from laboratory diagnostics and imaging to consumables, rehabilitation equipment and digital health. Visitor hours are 10:00 to 18:00 Monday to Wednesday and 10:00 to 16:00 on Thursday. One ticket covers both fairs. Bought online, a day ticket costs €50 and a four-day ticket €150. According to the organizer's 2025 post-show report, the two fairs together drew 78,000 visitors from 160 countries and 5,584 exhibitors from 70 countries (4,821 at MEDICA and 763 at COMPAMED).

MEDICA 2026 is a show in transition. The organizer has rebuilt the hall layout around eight themes, moved its main future-of-healthcare formats into one campus in Hall 12, opened a digital health hub in Hall 17 and added a Premium ticket for conferences and masterclasses. Hall 9 is closed for renovation. Regular visitors should not expect to find suppliers where they were last year, so plan your route again from scratch. The show opens 38 days after this guide is published, and the ticket shop is open now.

This guide covers what MEDICA and COMPAMED include, the four-day schedule, which ticket gets you where, the new hall themes, what exhibiting costs, and how to get to the fairground, including the new U81 light rail line from the airport. Dates, prices and figures come from the organizer's sites at medica-tradefair.com and the Messe Dusseldorf ticket shop, checked on October 5, 2026. For the structured listing, see our MEDICA 2026 show page.

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1. What MEDICA Actually Is

MEDICA is organized by Messe Dusseldorf GmbH. It began in 1969 as "Diagnostics Week," and the organizer says laboratory medicine is still part of its core. Today it covers the whole medical technology and healthcare market, and runs alongside COMPAMED, the fair for suppliers to the medical technology industry: components, materials, manufacturing technology, packaging and contract manufacturing. COMPAMED stays in Halls 8a and 8b, according to the organizer.

Under director Carmen Berger, who took over both fairs in October 2025, the organizer has been reworking MEDICA's content structure. For 2026 it groups the exhibition into five main product areas:

• Clinical Diagnostics & Therapeutic Technologies - imaging, nuclear medicine, radiotherapy, lab technology, medical devices, clinical equipment, orthopedics and traumatology.
• Digital Medicine, Data & Artificial Intelligence - hospital IT, wearables, telemedicine, AI, cybersecurity and data platforms.
• Integrated Care, Rehabilitation & Homecare - homecare, consumables and infection control.
• Healthcare Infrastructure, Manufacturing & Quality - healthcare buildings, regulation and market access.
• Healthcare Systems, Education & Global Health - education, training and simulation, and healthcare services.

Who visits. The organizer's 2025 closing release said three-quarters of the 78,000 trade visitors held top-management positions and that 75 percent of trade visitors came from outside Germany. It named buyer delegations from the Gulf States, Africa and the UK's National Health Service. Note that the organizer gives the number of visitor countries as 160 in the post-show report and 165 in an April 2026 release. This guide uses 160, from the post-show report.

Who exhibits. As of October 5, the organizer's online catalog listed 4,249 exhibitor profiles for 2026: 3,490 under MEDICA and 759 under COMPAMED. That is a working figure that changes as companies finish their entries, not a final count. Examples from the A-Z list include 3B Scientific (Hall 10, F20-3), 3DHISTECH (Hall 1, D11), aap Implantate (Hall 10, D64) and AAMEDIX Glove (Hall 5, E04). Search the catalog for the companies you need rather than assuming last year's exhibitors are back.

2. Dates, Hours & the Four-Day Shape

Exhibitors can be in the halls from 8:30 to 19:00, according to the organizer's facts-and-figures page. Premium ticket holders get in an hour early through the South Entrance (see section 3).

The show runs Monday to Thursday, so you can travel on the Sunday and fly home on Thursday evening or Friday. Thursday closes two hours early, so there is less meeting time on the last day.

3. Tickets: Which One Do You Need?

One ticket covers both MEDICA and COMPAMED. Prices from the Messe Dusseldorf ticket shop, checked on October 5, 2026:

Buy online. The on-site price is almost double for day and season tickets. The organizer also says online tickets let you go straight to the turnstiles without queuing.

The Standard ticket (day or season) gets you into both fairs and the special areas, including the Hospital of the Future and Wearable Technologies Pavilion in Hall 12, the MEDICA SPORTS HUB in Hall 4 and the MEDICA START-UP PARK in Hall 17, plus every free stage and forum. The organizer says the forum program is free for trade fair visitors.

The Premium ticket is new in 2026. According to the organizer, it includes access to both fairs for all four days, plus:

• the Wearable Technologies Conference Europe
• the MEDICA MEDICINE + SPORTS CONFERENCE and the International Sports Pharmacy Symposium
• the German Hospital Conference (Deutscher Krankenhaustag), which stays organizationally independent with its own participant registration, but is automatically accessible to Premium ticket holders, according to the organizer
• the Premium VIP Lounge in Hall 1, Level 1
• eligibility for the MEDICA Masterclasses: 90-minute sessions on November 16-18 in rooms 15 and 16 above Hall 1. The organizer says each masterclass needs a separate registration on top of the ticket, group sizes are limited, places are allocated subject to availability, and sessions run in German or English
• entry one hour before opening through the South Entrance

Conference tickets can be bought on their own, and each includes everything in a Standard ticket. Online prices include €189 for the MEDICA MEDICINE + SPORTS CONFERENCE, €130 for one day or €299 for all days of the 1st German Health Resilience Conference, €129 for the sports pharmacy symposium on November 16 and €650 for the Wearable Technologies Conference (an "Early Bird 2" price at the time of checking). Some prices may rise later, so check the shop before you buy.

Things to know before you buy:

• Your ticket is not a transit ticket. The organizer states that MEDICA tickets do not include travel on local buses and trains. Buy a separate ticket (see section 8).
• No refunds. Tickets cannot be canceled or returned, according to the organizer's FAQ.
• Exhibitor vouchers. Exhibitors can send visitor voucher codes to customers, and you can redeem a code in the ticket shop instead of paying. Ask your suppliers if they have codes before you buy.
• Wi-Fi. Every eTicket includes a free one-day Wi-Fi code (up to 2 Mbps, 1 GB). Faster vouchers start at €6 for 60 minutes.
• Press must accredit online in advance. The organizer says there is no on-site accreditation in 2026 because of building work.

4. The New Hall Layout

The organizer's 2026 site plan sorts the halls into eight themes instead of by product type alone. The organizer's hall allocation:

The organizer says it placed exhibitors in consultation with them, grouping stands around real clinical scenarios rather than pure product display. The halls in use, per the organizer's facts-and-figures page, are 1, 3 to 7.0, 7a, 7.1, 10 to 12 and 15 to 17, with COMPAMED in 8a and 8b. Hall 9 is not available in 2026 or 2027 while it is renovated, and the North Entrance is being modernized. Messe Dusseldorf is also building a new headquarters on the site, and one of its exhibition towers is being demolished, so expect construction around the grounds.

The organizer's interactive hall plan shows each exhibitor's hall and stand, and can plan a walking route between stands with estimated walking times. Use it before you arrive.

Hall 12: Healthcare Transformation Campus

This is one of the main changes for 2026. The organizer has moved its main future-of-healthcare formats into one hall:

• The MEDICA MAIN STAGE, a new central stage for keynotes and panels. The organizer says about 50 of MEDICA's roughly 800 speakers in 2026 will appear on it. Early confirmed sessions include a panel on resilient health systems with speakers from Charité, Sheba Medical Center and Rigshospitalet, a talk on AI in healthcare by Prof. David Matusiewicz, and a discussion on precision medicine with Prof. Uwe Nixdorff and Prof. Mathias Goyen of GE HealthCare.
• The Hospital of the Future, redesigned as one walk-through hospital that follows the patient pathway, instead of individual stands. Showcases listed by the organizer include tele-intensive care with University Hospital RWTH Aachen and sleep medicine with University Medicine Essen.
• The Hospital Leadership Summit for hospital CEOs and boards, and the new Hospital Procurement Summit for purchasing organizations.
• The German Hospital Conference (Deutscher Krankenhaustag).
• The Wearable Technologies Conference Europe and Pavilion, held at MEDICA for the first time.

Hall 17: Digital Health Hub

Announced on October 1, the hub brings together the new MEDICA DIGITAL HEALTH STAGE, the MEDICA START-UP PARK with around 100 young companies, and the MEDICA START-UP STAGE for pitches. The organizer says the program will cover AI, robotics, cloud, extended reality and health data, and will include a live hacker attack to show the cybersecurity risks hospitals face. The start-up park had more than 80 start-ups in 2025, according to the organizer.

5. Forums, Conferences and Networking

Free stages and forums for Standard ticket holders, with halls as given on the organizer's hall allocation page:

Paid conferences: the MEDICA MEDICINE + SPORTS CONFERENCE and International Sports Pharmacy Symposium (Hall 4), the Wearable Technologies Conference Europe (Hall 12), the German Hospital Conference (Hall 12) and the new 1st German Health Resilience Conference (Hall 11). The resilience conference is in German and deals with crisis planning for health systems, from cyberattacks to power cuts.

Matchmaking. The organizer's Fair Match tool, in the MEDICA app, lets visitors and exhibitors find each other and chat before, during and after the show. The organizer reported 53,000 Fair Match participants in 2025. Registered visitors can also send a contact request through an exhibitor's online profile.

Networking formats planned for 2026, according to the organizer, include Women in Health by MEDICA, curated roundtables for political and local decision-makers, guided tours with limited places, and an Investment & Growth Lounge next to the start-up park.

6. COMPAMED: The Supplier Fair Next Door

If you design or manufacture medical devices, COMPAMED may matter more to you than MEDICA. It runs on the same dates in Halls 8a and 8b and is covered by the same ticket. According to the organizer, its 2026 exhibition areas are:

• manufacturing, lifecycle and obsolescence management
• components, modules and systems (electronics, sensors, microfluidics, semiconductors, optics and photonics)
• materials, chemicals and surface technologies
• compliance, quality, regulation and market access
• software, digitalization, cybersecurity and future technologies

The 2025 post-show report counted 763 COMPAMED exhibitors. The organizer's catalog showed 759 COMPAMED exhibitor profiles for 2026 on October 5. COMPAMED has its own stage program and its own site at compamed-tradefair.com. See also our COMPAMED show page.

7. Exhibiting at MEDICA

Registration opened on January 27, 2026, and the organizer said it would allocate halls from the end of June. With about five weeks to go, a first-time exhibitor should contact the project team directly to ask whether any space is left for 2026, or start planning for 2027. The organizer lists project managers by product area on its online registration page, and the exhibitor hotline is +49 211 4560-400.

Space prices. The organizer's net prices for MEDICA 2026, per square meter of floor space, before German VAT:

Fees on top of space, from the organizer's stand cost calculator:

• Media fee: €995 per exhibitor.
• AUMA contribution: €0.60 per m².
• Waste disposal during the fair: €2.70 per m², capped at €1,350.
• Technical prepayment: €25 per m² for exhibitors who did not take part in the last edition. This is an advance against services you order, settled after the show.
• Co-exhibitor fee: €1,000 per co-exhibitor on a main exhibitor's stand. The 2026 Conditions of Participation allow no co-exhibitors on stands under 20 m², one on a stand of 21 to 35 m², and one more for each further 15 m². Each co-exhibitor needs a substantiated business connection to the main exhibitor, such as a joint product, a group structure or an exclusive distribution partnership.
• Exhibitor passes: 3 free passes for a stand of up to 20 m², plus one for each further 10 m² (maximum 50), and 2 for each co-exhibitor, according to the 2026 Conditions of Participation. Extra passes cost €42.02 each.
• Withdrawal before admission: €900.

The minimum stand is 12 m², and smaller spaces are offered only if they come free during hall planning. Stand construction, electricity, cleaning and other services are not included in the space price. Messe Dusseldorf offers a 3D stand configurator and an all-in service package through its Service Alliance partners. Online registration is legally binding, and new Conditions of Participation apply for 2026, according to the organizer.

At 12 m², a row stand costs €3,648 in space plus the €995 media fee, before the smaller per-m² fees, construction, services and VAT. Ask for a full quote for construction and services before you commit.

Questions to settle before you commit

• Which of the eight hall themes will you be placed in, and which exhibitors and buyers will be nearby?
• If your country runs a pavilion at MEDICA (European pavilions are in Hall 15, international pavilions in 7.1 and 16), what does its package include and cost compared with booking your own stand? Ask the pavilion organizer, since pavilion terms are set separately from the stand prices above.
• Would your product fit a showcase in the Hospital of the Future or a slot on the Market Entry Stage, and what does that cost?
• How many staff passes does your package include before the €42.02 extra-pass charge applies?
• When do stand construction and dismantling start for your hall? For Halls 1, 3 to 7.0, 10 to 12 and 15 to 17, the organizer gives construction from November 10 at 07:30 to November 15 at 22:00, and dismantling from 16:00 on November 19 to 16:00 on November 23. Confirm the times for other halls with the organizer.
• How many visitor voucher codes will you send to customers, and how are they billed?

8. Getting There

Venue address: Messe Dusseldorf, Am Staad, 40474 Dusseldorf. Open entrances listed by the organizer are North A, North B, North D, East, South and CCD South Congress Center.

From the airport. Two new light rail lines started on September 4, 2026. The U81 runs from the Dusseldorf Airport terminal to the MERKUR SPIEL-ARENA/Messe Nord stop at the North Entrance in about seven minutes during the fair. The U80 links the airport with the Messe Ost/Stockumer Kirchstrasse stop, the city center and Dusseldorf central station. The old bus route 896 between the airport and the fairground has been discontinued, according to the organizer.

From the city. The U78 serves Messe Nord and the U78, U79 and U80 serve Messe Ost. Bus 722 runs from the city center past several fairground stops, including Messe Sud/Congress Center.

Buy a transit ticket. Your MEDICA ticket does not cover local transport. The organizer suggests checking in and out with eezy.nrw in the Rheinbahn app, which calculates the fare for you. The DusseldorfCard, sold for 24 to 96 hours, includes free local transport and discounts at more than 80 attractions. Deutsche Bahn's Event Ticket offers a fixed fare to the fair from any station in Germany.

By car. Take the A44 to junction 29, "Messe/Arena," and park in P1 or P2. Free shuttle buses run to the entrances. Parking is paid by card or online only.

Visas. The organizer says you do not need an invitation letter from Messe Dusseldorf to apply for a Schengen visa as a visitor. Submit your visitor eTicket with your application, and check the other required documents with the German embassy or consulate where you apply. Messe Dusseldorf has foreign representatives in many countries who can help.

Hotels. The organizer's hotel partner is KUONI Tumlare Congress, through the HotelMap booking platform (messe.duesseldorf@kuonitumlare.com). Messe Dusseldorf also lists KD hotel ships moored in the city.

Accessibility. The organizer says the grounds are barrier-free and that wheelchairs can be rented. Visitors with an aG or Bl disability badge can park free in P1 and P2. Assistance dogs are allowed, but other dogs are not permitted at medical trade fairs.

9. Planning Notes and Clashes

Key dates:

• Now - ticket shop open. Online prices are much lower than on-site prices.
• November 10-15 - stand construction in Halls 1, 3 to 7.0, 10 to 12 and 15 to 17.
• November 16 - opening day; International Sports Pharmacy Symposium.
• November 19 - final day, closes at 16:00.

The same month. Our November 2026 trade shows calendar lists the other major shows that month. If you also buy or sell into China, the CIIE 2026 guide covers the import expo in Shanghai from November 5 to 10, the week before MEDICA. Pharmaceutical suppliers may also want our CPHI Worldwide 2026 guide.

MEDICA's sister events. Messe Dusseldorf runs related medical fairs in Asia under the MEDICARE ASIA umbrella, including Medical Fair Asia in Singapore and Medical Fair India. Check each organizer's site for the next dates.

A note on the numbers. The 78,000 visitor figure covers MEDICA and COMPAMED together. The organizer's 2025 closing release said "more than 5,300 exhibitors," while its later post-show report gives 5,584 (4,821 at MEDICA and 763 at COMPAMED). This guide uses the post-show report. The visitor-country count appears as 160 and 165 in different organizer documents. The 4,249 exhibitor profiles for 2026 are an interim count from the online catalog on October 5.

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FAQs

When is MEDICA 2026? MEDICA 2026 runs from Monday November 16 to Thursday November 19, 2026 at Messe Dusseldorf in Germany. COMPAMED runs on the same dates in Halls 8a and 8b.

What are the opening hours at MEDICA 2026? Visitors can enter from 10:00 to 18:00 Monday to Wednesday and from 10:00 to 16:00 on Thursday, according to the organizer. Premium ticket holders can enter one hour early through the South Entrance.

How much is a MEDICA 2026 ticket? In the Messe Dusseldorf ticket shop, a one-day ticket costs €50 online or €95 on site, and a four-day season ticket costs €150 online or €275 on site. The Premium ticket costs €799. Each ticket covers both MEDICA and COMPAMED. Tickets cannot be canceled or refunded.

What does the MEDICA Premium ticket include? The Premium ticket, new in 2026, is a four-day pass to MEDICA and COMPAMED that also includes the Wearable Technologies Conference Europe, the MEDICA MEDICINE + SPORTS CONFERENCE, the International Sports Pharmacy Symposium, the German Hospital Conference, the Premium VIP Lounge and entry one hour before opening. It also makes you eligible for the MEDICA Masterclasses, but each masterclass needs a separate registration and places are limited.

Does the MEDICA ticket include public transport? No. The organizer says MEDICA and COMPAMED tickets are not valid on local buses and trains, so you need a separate transit ticket, for example through eezy.nrw in the Rheinbahn app or a DusseldorfCard.

How do I get from Dusseldorf Airport to MEDICA? The U81 light rail line runs from the airport terminal to the MERKUR SPIEL-ARENA/Messe Nord stop at the North Entrance in about seven minutes during the fair. The U80 links the airport with the Messe Ost stop, the city center and the central station. Both lines started on September 4, 2026.

How big was MEDICA 2025? According to the organizer's post-show report, MEDICA and COMPAMED 2025 together drew 78,000 visitors from 160 countries and 5,584 exhibitors from 70 countries: 4,821 at MEDICA and 763 at COMPAMED.

What is COMPAMED? COMPAMED is the trade fair for suppliers to the medical technology industry, covering components, materials, manufacturing technology, regulation and software. It runs at the same time as MEDICA in Halls 8a and 8b, and the same ticket covers both.

How much does it cost to exhibit at MEDICA 2026? The organizer's net space prices range from €304 per square meter for a row stand to €336 for an island stand, plus a €995 media fee, €0.60 per square meter AUMA contribution and €2.70 per square meter waste fee, all before VAT. The minimum stand is 12 square meters, and construction and services cost extra.

Do I need an invitation letter for a German visa to visit MEDICA? No. The organizer says visitors do not need an invitation letter from Messe Dusseldorf to apply for a Schengen visa. You submit your visitor eTicket with your application, and should check the other required documents with the German embassy or consulate where you apply.