This week, I had the pleasure of attending the Medic West Africa conference in Lagos.

Medic West Africa is organized by Informa Markets Healthcare and is billed as the largest healthcare industry trade event in West Africa. This year's conference was well attended by medical device manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors, as well as health providers, government health policy makers, and other health professionals.

Here are my 4 main takeaways about the recently-concluded conference.

It was great to do in-person conferences again

For the past two years, this conference went virtual, and it wasn't the same. As I'm sure you've realized if you'd made it to a post-COVID conference, it is wonderful to meet in person again. I particularly enjoyed randomly running into mentors and acquaintances whom I hadn't seen in a while. And it was great seeing how many medical equipment manufacturers and distributors came from all over the world.

Medical equipment is evolving

One of the reasons I go to this conference every year is to check out the latest trends in medical equipment, particularly diagnostic equipment. And it's clear that there are some exiting advances happening in the equipment space. I am particularly impressed by many of the new point-of-care lab devices that were showcased; I will be adding a couple of these to our centers in the future!

Medical equipment is getting more expensive

Time and time again during this conference I was shocked by how expensive equipment has become. For example, the cheapest analog mobile x-ray machine I saw went for around N12,000,000, compared to around N6,000,000 a few years ago. Given the state of things in Nigeria, I can see how it will be hard for hospitals to afford these pieces equipment when they really need them.

This is the premier medical conference in West Africa 

I was really impressed with the organization of the conference. Kudos to the organizers! Registration was free and seamless. It was well attended by all of the major global players, and the side events were highly engaging as well. I particularly enjoyed the sessions about the new Nigerian health insurance bill.

Looking forward to next year's event!