04/11/2011

A new medical electronics conference and exhibition is scheduled to take place at the end of this month in Cambridge, featuring contribution from some of the world's top semiconductor specialists.

Medelec 2011 is being billed as the only technical event of its kind in the UK to particularly focus on embedded systems and electronic components specifically made for use in medical devices. Companies lining up to give presentations and stage seminars at the event include prominent names such as Intel, Analog Devices and Renesas Electronics.

The organisers have said their aim is to provide the people on the cutting edge of medical technology with a forum, where they can keep up to date with other advances in the medical device world and share any information they have.

Intel's marketing segment manager, Conor Clancy, said that electronic devices and the chips and technology contained in them controlled matters of life and death and their security and efficiency is a very hot topic.

"Security has become a hot topic in the healthcare space, particularly as medical devices are moving progressively towards connectivity to help enable the ease of monitoring, tracking and supporting enterprise productivity," he explained. "However, connectivity to the network can subject these devices to a wide range of viruses that has the potential to impact patient care by compromising data, leading to increased down time and increasing costs to cleanse the infected devices."

Medelec is being held at the Menzies Hotel in Cambridge on Tuesday, 29 November.