Crisis Preparedness and Device Stockpiling Take Center Stage at MedTech Forum 2026

How Europe keeps medical devices flowing through wars, pandemics and supply shocks was a recurring theme at the 2026 MedTech Forum in Stockholm, according to a Medical Device Network report published May 22. Speakers from governments and industry said stockpiles need to be planned around agreed lists of critical devices.

The forum, which organizer MedTech Europe describes as Europe's largest health and medical technology conference, ran from May 11 to 13. MedTech Europe chief executive Oliver Bisazza opened the first day by calling the sector a strategic pillar "surrounded by storms."

"We're in a very turbulent world right now, and if I reflect back on the last year since the 2025 MedTech Forum, it feels like we've been in a washing machine of tariffs, supply chain, and other disruptions that make it hard to hold up the pillar, but we are holding it up," Bisazza said, according to the report.

Lessons from Ukraine and the Nordics

Dmytro Gusiev, deputy head of mission at Ukraine's embassy in Sweden, told a main-stage panel that more than 2,600 healthcare facilities in Ukraine had been damaged or destroyed by Russian attacks as of May 2026, while full medical services continue at more than 1,500 facilities, Medical Device Network reported. He said medical equipment is protected with tools such as voltage stabilizers, and that a tiered hospital network relies on generators and strategic fuel reserves.

Laura Rissanen, a state secretary in Finland, said Finland does not have separate military hospitals and is conducting intensive preparedness planning between its health and defense sectors. Michaela Hollis, state secretary to Sweden's minister for health care, said Sweden is working on stockpiling medical devices and has signed agreements with regional authorities to strengthen healthcare supply preparedness, a concern the report tied to supply disruption from Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Hollis said Sweden is "starting to create a national overview of medical devices supported by improved categorisation, product identification, and mapping of product production capacity."

What to keep in reserve

A second-day session examined what should guide stockpiling decisions. "We can't stockpile everything at once," said Véronique Tordoff, vice president and head of image guided therapy for Europe at Philips. Ellen McMahon, a preparedness specialist at Finland's National Emergency Supply Agency, said countries need a shared view of how much preparedness is proportionate to different kinds of crisis. "In terms of stockpiling, are we talking about one, two, three months, or more?" she asked.

Tordoff said the Dutch health ministry has contracted Philips to manage part of its stockpiling, including patient monitors and portable ultrasound units that are stored, maintained and reconditioned after deployment. She said the equipment has been sent to Ukraine and to natural disasters such as the earthquake in Türkiye.

Several speakers said many of the crisis-response measures adopted during the Covid-19 pandemic have not been sustained, citing factors such as Europe's constrained economic landscape, Medical Device Network reported.