HLTH 2024, scheduled for October 20-23 at the Venetian Expo Center in Las Vegas, will highlight new programming, a physician roundtable, generative AI, the shifting landscapes of telemedicine, retail health, women’s health, and lots more. In the first of a series of articles, executives from HLTH offer a sneak preview of the event highlights in response to emailed questions.
What’s new at HLTH 2024? How do these changes reflect emerging trends in healthcare and feedback from past conferences?
Jody Tropeano, Head of Content: For one, the mix of topics on our main agenda changes every year to reflect current trends in the industry, such as the emergence of GenerativeAI in a big way, the changing dynamics between retail health and healthcare, telemedicine’s uncertain trajectory following the pandemic boom and everything longevity-related, just to name a few. Each year the topics take on a different angle because the pace of technological innovation is moving very fast, but our industry is not always able to keep up, so we hope to spark ideas that will accelerate necessary changes.
We have a brand-new AI Pavilion on the show floor that will showcase a variety of companies with unique use cases through presentations, tech demos and hands-on show floor tours.
We have brought our popular nurses program that started at ViVE to HLTH with our Nurse Insights Program that Amy Eckenroth will go into a bit more below.
We have a brand-new Oral Health Pavilion on the show floor to highlight the importance of oral-systemic health within overall health. A Food as Medicine Pavilion will showcase organizations merging nutrition with healthcare.
We are also offering CME credits this year through tailored sessions including topics such as AI governance, LGBTQIA+ gender affirming care training, unconscious bias training and an osteopathic approach to digital health innovation, to name a few. Check the “CME Credit” tag on agenda sessions to find this specific programming.
Every year we are pushing ourselves to offer more value and ROI on attendees’ time through new programs and networking opportunities. I truly believe there is something for everyone at HLTH and our program is the most comprehensive yet.
To register for HLTH 2024, click here.
How has the Payer Insights program been received? What will content around this topic look like at HLTH 2024?
Amy Eckenroth, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships: The Payer Insights program has quickly become the most popular of the Insights series, attracting both peer payers and tech companies, including those with limited healthcare focus but looking to grow in the market. These sessions provide attendees the opportunity to learn more about partnerships, often driven by the competitive nature of the healthcare business. Let face it — both payers and tech leaders are at HLTH seeking ways to help maintain their edge. With payers managing vast amounts of data, tech leaders are eager to help them with things like personalized care treatment plans, identifying claims trends, and making more informed decisions.
Companies, from analytics to wearables, are filling the room, eager to understand payer challenges so they can try and develop innovations on a larger scale. While enhancing patient outcomes is always going to be the #1 priority, cost saving is going to be equally important to payers. That certainly explains the long line of tech leaders offering solutions in automation, analytics, and telehealth, eager to connect with our payer speakers about helping them manage costs.
And we certainly can’t forget about our complex regulatory landscape, which means tech leaders must ensure their products comply with industry standards and are interoperable with existing frameworks, making collaboration with payers a significant goal at HLTH.
What will content around this topic look like at HLTH 2024?
Jody: I think this year we will be hearing a lot about the shift toward preventive care and what that looks like for both public and private insurers, as well as those who are insured. And of course, a payer insights discussion wouldn’t be complete without addressing how we, as a country, plan to fund these initiatives, along with the tech advances that are and could help us reduce costs.
This is a general election year with VP Kamala Harris now at the top of the ticket following Joe Biden’s decision to bow out of the race. How will content at HLTH 2024 reflect conversations around federal policy discussions highlighted during the campaign?
Jody: HLTH tries to remain a bipartisan platform, as our attendees come from varying ends of the political spectrum, and we aim to be a place where all opinions are welcomed. That being said, we believe that certain topics that have become highly politicized, such as reproductive rights and women’s health, remain squarely a healthcare issue and belong on our stages for discussion. We feel strongly in protecting reproductive freedoms and supporting women’s health research and that opinion will come across in many of the sessions we have planned this year. Depending on the election results, we want our industry’s leaders to be prepared to mobilize in order to ensure access to care for all women across the country. We will also have conversations around potential shifts in healthcare policy depending on the election results, including the ACA’s future, Medicare drug price negotiations, how to combat the healthcare worker shortage and vertical integration within healthcare. One premier policy session will be a main stage discussion with Andy Slavitt, General Partner with Town Hall Ventures and former CMS administrator under the Obama administration, and Seema Verma, Slavitt’s successor under the Trump administration, who come from different political backgrounds, but see eye-to-eye on many issues. Our Policy Summit on Wednesday will also dive deeper into pre-election insights that are imperative for healthcare leaders to know ahead of November.
What will be the focus of the startup pitch contests at HLTH this year?
Leah Callahan, Senior Manager of Content: The HLTH Startup Pitch Competition will reflect the themes we have throughout the event highlighting the cutting edge of innovation in healthcare.
The WELL by HLTH Startup Pitch Competition parallels our WELL by HLTH theme, focusing on direct-to-consumer solutions where wellness intersects with healthcare.
The Healthy Living Pitch event sponsored by AgeTech Collaborative will feature technology solutions that contribute to maintaining and enhancing well-being as you age.
The Provider Care Coordination Startup Pitch, sponsored by TGH Ventures, will host solutions that improve communication, streamline processes, and enhance patient outcomes by seamlessly integrating with existing healthcare systems.
To view the official page for additional information, click here.
Tell us a bit about the Specialty Summits on the final day of the event. Why did you decide to take this approach? What will they cover?
Jody: The Specialty Summits are programs designed to dive deeper into the top trending topics for the year and allow for more networking between attendees working in a similar area within health innovation. Our main agenda covers a very wide range of topics over the first three days of the event, so these summits are an opportunity for attendees and speakers to probe deeper into key topic areas that they may not have been able to do on previous days.
The summits include:
The Policy Summit: Focused on everything attendees need to know ahead of the 2024 presidential election
The GLP-1 Summit: This class of drug has shifted everything: employer costs, treatment for chronic conditions and beyond, outcomes, and has stirred a huge discussion around drug pricing. There is a lot to cover!
Healthy Aging Summit: It plays into our overall theme of expanding not just your lifespan, but your healthspan, and giving people more healthy years back into older ages.
And finally, our Future, Future, Future of Health Tech Summit, which mirrors the overall focus of HLTH: health innovation. We want to highlight the tech that will bring our industry into the next decade of care transformation.
In addition to these four summits, we are also hosting a Healthcare Marketing Summit in collaboration with Kargo, given all of the marketing professionals that we have in attendance who often don’t have content tailored to their specific roles. This summit is for them.
Each summit will have an opening keynote. For example, Dr. Micky Tripathi with ONC will kick off The Policy Summit and Blue Zones will be kicking off the Healthy Aging Summit. Following those opening keynotes, each summit will go into deeper panel discussions and finally end with interactive roundtables between attendees. Our hope is that attendees interested in each of these topics will have a better chance to learn and connect with likeminded experts and grow their networks and understanding.
Talk about the Impact programs.
Alifya Parekh, Content Research Manager, HLTH: This year, we will continue our tradition of having both Health Equity and Patients @ Health programs on the Impact stage.
Health Equity: The Health Equity program this year highlights progress, collaborations, and new approaches in addressing health disparities and systemic barriers to good health.
The topics that will be covered on the stage this year will include the power of partnerships in improving health outcomes, building an evidence-based approach to mental health, a forward-thinking approach to accelerating vaccine development, breaking the stigma around maternal mental health, creating inclusive and accessible healthcare, and innovative solutions to improve rural health equity. By focusing on these critical areas, the program aims to drive meaningful change and make progress towards more equitable and accessible healthcare for all.
Patients @ HLTH: Patients @ HLTH brings together patients and healthcare executives. The aim is to integrate patients into healthcare innovation and care delivery as a standard practice. The content sessions highlight both individual patient experiences and broader population-level care delivery, showcasing innovative approaches to patient engagement, experience and satisfaction. An important aspect of this program is that healthcare executives, patients and informal caregivers are highlighted as equal partners in healthcare design.
The topics that will be covered on the stage this year will include innovating care from the ground up, highlighting a patient’s journey through colon cancer, exploring the role of dietitians in the healthcare ecosystem, the future of patient engagement, and how we can leverage wearables to be more proactive about health, among others.
What are the physician roundtables?
Mary Sheridan, Director of Partnerships, HLTH: As the healthcare landscape continues to evolve with increasing patient demands, policy changes, and tech innovations, gaining direct insights from practicing physicians is more critical than ever. This is an exclusive opportunity in partnership with Physician Side Gigs, an online community of over 200,000 verified physicians.
Each roundtable consists of eight physicians who have expertise in one of the following areas: AI, Care Coordination, Chronic Care Management, EHR/EMR, Mental/Behavioral Health, Population Health, Precision Medicine, Preventative Health, and Telemedicine.
The value prop for these roundtables is gaining direct access to expertise through engaging with currently practicing physicians with multi-year experience across all specialties. If a physician is interacting with your product or solution and you haven’t directly asked for their feedback, YOU NEED TO! These are customized discussions where sponsors choose their topics often to validate product offerings, get feedback on solutions, and understand customer pain points in real-time.
Are there any speakers new to the event who you are particularly excited about?
Jody: Yes! For one Lance Bass, who was on posters on my wall when I was younger and now is speaking out about his own health journey so I’m excited for attendees to hear from him. We have exciting announcements from GE Healthcare’s Dr. Taha Kass-Hout, Meta’s Dr. Freddy Abnousi and Blue Shield of California’s CEO, Paul Markovich. Kimberly Powell will no doubt wow our audience with all the amazing work she is leading at NVIDIA. And we are theming our entire Monday afternoon block of main stage sessions around women’s health with some amazing speakers planned that we have not yet announced, one being Jennifer Klein the Director of the White House Gender Policy Council. I cannot wait to announce the others! The list really goes on, this is our best year yet.