- Summits
- Sponsorship
- Get Tickets
- Retreats
- Media Opportunities
- News
- About
Every year, the International Advanced Endoscopy Masterclass (AEM) brings together some of the field’s sharpest clinical and industry minds to discuss where endoscopic medicine is heading next. At the 2026 edition of International AEM Malta from 15 to 17 April, MedTech World sat down with two people looking at that future from very different vantage points: a practising gastroenterologist navigating the day-to-day realities of patient care in the UK, and a MedTech innovator building the next generation of minimally invasive tools for obesity and metabolic disease.
Their conversations, taken together, tell a consistent story: endoscopy is no longer just a diagnostic pathway. It is becoming a therapeutic platform, and the technology enabling that shift is reshaping everything from patient trust to hospital throughput.
For Dr. Sarah Suleiman, a gastroenterologist with NHS England, speaking to MedTech World, the biggest technological gains haven’t necessarily happened inside the procedure room; they’ve happened around it.
“Technology has made things easier, maybe not just from a procedure point of view, but from start to finish,” she explained. Patients can now review and sign consent forms from home, well before they ever set foot in the endoscopy unit. They can read up on what to expect, arriving better informed and less anxious. On the other end of the process, reporting has sped up dramatically: results are generated within minutes and shared automatically with both the patient and their GP.
“There’s very quick communication, access to results, and a better understanding of what’s going on, because they have such good access to their information,” she said.
It’s a reminder that in advanced endoscopy, patient experience isn’t a soft metric sitting alongside clinical outcomes; it’s increasingly built on the same digital infrastructure that powers diagnosis and treatment.
Despite these improvements, one barrier remains stubbornly human: fear. Asked what stops people from getting a colonoscopy, Dr. Suleiman didn’t hesitate — it’s the anxiety around the procedure itself, particularly given its nature.
Her approach is direct reassurance grounded in scale and safety. “If we’re asking for you to have one, you need it — we wouldn’t be doing it if you didn’t,” she said, noting that her department performs the procedure hundreds of times a day. “It’s a safe procedure that we do all the time, and there’s a reason they need it. They will be fine.”
It’s a useful reminder for an industry focused on device innovation: even the most advanced technology only delivers value if patients are willing to walk through the door. Communication and trust remain as critical as the tools themselves.
That same tension — powerful technology meeting real-world adoption barriers — was central to MedTech World’s conversation with Nicolas Geûens, VP of Therapy Development at Endo Tools Therapeutics, a company developing minimally invasive alternatives to bariatric surgery for obesity and metabolic disease.
Geûens framed the broader shift succinctly: “Historically, endoscopy has been focused on diagnostics. Over the years, it really became a therapeutic platform, and now, even more complex therapeutic solutions are being offered.”
He attributes this evolution to three converging factors: device innovation, enabling technologies such as improved imaging, and the growing skill and experience of physicians. But underneath all of that, he pointed to something less tangible — confidence. “Physicians now are confident that they can manage and treat certain diseases in a less invasive way than before,” he said, adding that the shift reduces the burden on both patients and healthcare systems.
For all the progress, Geûens was candid about what still needs work: consistency. Advanced endoscopic procedures remain technically demanding and highly operator-dependent, which creates variability that can slow adoption.
“We want to simplify the procedures as much as possible to reduce variability across operators and across various health centers,” he said, “because this is the only way to make sure that the adoption of patients who need these procedures will definitely go up.”
This focus on reproducibility points to a broader principle Geûens uses to evaluate innovation before it ever reaches a clinician: three criteria that any new technology has to satisfy.
When a new minimally invasive technology is successfully adopted, the ripple effects extend well beyond the procedure room, according to Geûens. Faster procedure times improve scheduling and throughput. Lower invasiveness reduces complication rates and shortens patient recovery. Physicians gain confidence in delivering consistent outcomes, and hospitals benefit from better resource utilization — meaning more patients can be treated in a less invasive way.
In short: the value of innovation isn’t just clinical. It’s operational, felt across scheduling boards, recovery wards, and hospital budgets alike.
Looking ahead, Geûens sees the greatest opportunity in earlier intervention: treating disease before it progresses to a stage requiring major surgery or invasive treatment for severe complications. He also anticipates minimally invasive options expanding into a wider range of conditions currently reliant on more invasive standards of care.
Making that possible, he argued, will depend on convergence: device innovation meeting software innovation, including artificial intelligence, alongside better imaging and richer data. Together, these should enable more precise, predictable outcomes with less variability — and ultimately, greater treatment accessibility for patients.
On AI specifically, Geûens was measured rather than promotional. While he noted that many companies in the endoscopic space are already applying AI, particularly in imaging, Endo Tools Therapeutics does not yet have an AI-based solution of its own. “It’s certainly an innovation that we are closely looking at,” he said.
Across both conversations, a common thread emerges: the future of advanced endoscopy isn’t just about sharper devices or smarter imaging; it’s about systems that work reliably across different hands, different hospitals, and different patients, while still earning the trust of the people on the table. As the field pushes toward earlier intervention and wider accessibility, that combination of clinical value, usability, and scalability may prove to be the real measure of innovation.
MedTech World returns to Malta for MedTech World Europe 2026, its biggest edition yet. Taking place from 11-13 November 2026, MedTech Malta Week expands the traditional conference into a five-day experience across Malta and Gozo, bringing together investors, founders, healthcare leaders, innovators, and industry experts from across the global MedTech ecosystem.
The week opens with the MedTech World Investors Retreat in Gozo from 9–11 November, offering accredited investors and senior industry leaders an exclusive setting for strategic conversations, networking, workshops, and curated experiences. The programme then moves to Malta for a cultural immersion day in Valletta and Mdina on 11 November, before the main MedTech World Europe conference takes place from 11 to 13 November at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta.
Throughout the conference, attendees can expect keynote sessions, panel discussions, workshops, company showcases, investor meetings, an exhibition floor, and the MedTech World Startup Pitch Competition, followed by the MedTech World Gala Awards, honoring achievements across the global MedTech ecosystem.
Interested in being part of the biggest MedTech World Europe yet? Book your ticket now.
