The manner in which populations live is changing with a move to urbanisation, and with increasing demands on existing healthcare systems due to ageing populations and non-communicable diseases (such as diabetes, cardiac disease, and stroke). The result is that current healthcare systems are on an unsustainable course in terms of global budgets and in the care that they provide. Healthcare technologies offer a key means of creating the next generation of healthcare to meet these changing demands. Research carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO) reveals that almost 95 percent of medics practicing in less developed countries are reliant on medical technology that has been imported.

Addressing the rapidly-growing field and demand for healthcare technologies, the IET International HealthTech conference aims to be the first in a new series of international conferences aimed at the healthcare technologies sector as it pertains to the People’s Republic of China. This conference aims to bring together key speakers from government, industry, funding agencies, clinicians, charities, tech transfer entities and academia to discuss opportunities and challenges in the exploitation of Western HealthTech in China and the exploitation of Chinese-initiated HealthTech in Western nations.