- Summits
- Sponsorship
- News
- About
For years, surgical innovation has been discussed in two separate rooms: one filled with clinicians presenting peer-reviewed data, the other populated by industry leaders pitching product roadmaps. Rarely do those rooms open onto each other. SDTS, the Surgical Disruptive Technology Summit, was founded in the United States by Erik Wilson and colleagues on the premise that this separation is precisely what is slowing surgical innovation forward. Now, for the first time, that format is coming to Europe.
Chaired by Manish Chand and supported by Erik Wilson as co-chair, SDTS Europe will take place in Malta on November 14, 2026, in partnership with MedTech World, whose mission to connect innovators, investors, and healthcare leaders makes it a natural home for a summit built on exactly that principle.
“I am delighted to have finally been able to put together a wonderful team to launch SDTS in Europe. With the support of Erik and our amazing committee we plan on showcasing the best of Europe in the beautiful location of Valletta, Malta. I have always enjoyed working with Dylan and having the MedTech World team with us only strengthens the event”
“MedTech World was built on a simple belief: that the fastest way to advance patient care is to bring the people building the future of surgery in the same room as the people performing it. Welcoming SDTS to Malta is the fullest expression of that belief.”
SDTS Europe is not a traditional academic conference. There will be no rear-facing clinical reviews, no presentations designed primarily to impress colleagues, and no panels structured to protect commercial relationships. Instead, this high-tempo event will convene a curated group of fewer than 100 delegates, leading surgeons, C-suite MedTech executives, and strategic investors, in a format built for candour and deep meaningful discussion.
The core ambition is to put innovators, industry voices and clinicians on equal footing and let them solve real problems together. Questions like whether European regulatory frameworks are stifling innovation, whether US-built MedTech products adequately serve European patients, and whether Europe still has a credible claim to global MedTech leadership will not be rhetorical. They will be the agenda.
“SDTS has been one of the best meetings of the past. But Europe is not the United States. We need that format in Europe to get to the real heart of surgical innovation in Europe.”
Steve Bell has 35 years of MedTech industry experience, having helped raise $1.5 billion across multiple ventures and played a key role in creating Europe’s largest MedTech unicorn, CMR Surgical.
The choice of Malta is itself a statement. This event will not be staged at the established European surgical training centres. Choosing Malta signals a deliberate departure from convention. A crossroads geography for a crossroads conversation.
Malta has emerged as one of Europe’s most dynamic MedTech environments, with growing institutional appetite for innovation and a strategic position between North Africa, the Middle East, and mainland Europe. The event is being held in partnership with MedTech World, whose footprint in Malta has helped establish the island as a serious hub for health technology dialogue.
The SDTS Europe Edition is organised by a steering committee that combines the founding energy of the US event with deep European and international clinical expertise:
Delegates should expect serious engagement with questions including:
SDTS Europe is not designed to be a large event. The format depends on intimacy. The target audience is narrow by design: MedTech executives making or influencing investment and product decisions for Europe; surgical thought leaders who want a genuine seat at the table when those decisions are made; and investors seeking direct, unfiltered access to what the field actually needs.
As the steering committee puts it, this is a meeting that fits a specific niche — C-suite industry alongside actual inventors and builders, on the same stage, with no intermediary agenda between them. Delegates will leave with the kind of perspectives and relationships that take years to build anywhere else.
SDTS Europe Edition takes place on November 14, 2026 in Malta. Places are limited to fewer than 100 delegates.
Whether you are a MedTech executive shaping your European strategy, a surgical innovator looking for the right industry partners, or an investor wanting to understand where the field is genuinely headed — this is the room to be in.
To register your interest, explore partnership opportunities, or find out more about the event, write to us at [email protected].
