HLTH 2025 Conference: Key Highlights

HLTH, lauded by many as one of healthcare’s largest and leading conferences, returned for its eighth time this October for the HLTH 2025 conference. Our Cancer Stories joined the event to track the latest insights in cancer health and wellness.

HLTH is an annual event first launched in 2018, with its main flagship conference held in the United States. The conference attracts a wide range of stakeholders within the healthcare ecosystem, including C-suite executives, major pharmaceutical companies, startups, health insurers, investors, non-profits, and government agencies. Its key aim is to drive healthcare innovation and transformation by bringing together decision-makers within the ecosystem to network, exchange insights, and tackle healthcare challenges.

Last year, HLTH ran its first European edition (HLTH Europe) that was intended to address the specific needs, challenges, and opportunities of the European healthcare ecosystem.

More than 12,000 attendees gathered at The Venetian Expo Center in Las Vegas for HLTH 2025. The four-day event featured an extensive agenda that ranged from expert panel discussions and startup pitch competitions to networking receptions and entertainment.

The HLTH conference included a bustling showfloor with a significant focus on AI-driven healthcare. Companies from large-scale enterprises to new ventures exhibited their latest technological products, such as the Mayo Clinic Platform that enables secure and collaborative data sharing to facilitate innovation at scale.

Nurses and female health were also featured prominently, including the Nurse Innovator Pavilion and panel discussions dedicated to women’s health challenges and treatment access. An art gallery provided respite during the day and showcased creative works from various community health centers and clinics across the country.

One prevailing conversation at the event was the high healthcare cost. A related concern was cuts in federal funding, which drove talk and anxiety about healthcare employment and loss of insurance coverage. During the first evening of the conference, Mark Cuban, a renowned entrepreneur and co-founder of Cost Plus Drugs, blasted the sources of high costs and urged leaders to act.

Several sessions were dedicated to cancer care and wellness. Dr. Peter Pisters, President of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, shared about the rising trend of cancer diagnoses in young women and the importance of multi-cancer early detection tests.

Rob Lowe, American actor and cancer advocate, highlighted in a conversation with ovarian cancer survivor, Alicia Dellario, the need for greater participation in clinical trials that improve patient health outcomes.

On the showfloor, Our Cancer Stories observed numerous technologies being exhibited that facilitate either (multi-)cancer detection or clinical trial access to emerging cancer treatment. Other innovations include personalized tools supporting life after cancer and mental well-being, reflecting a growing emphasis on holistic care and the psychosocial aspects of cancer.

HLTH 2026 is expected to be held in Las Vegas 15 to 18 November 2026. The next HLTH Europe is slated to be held from 15 to 18 June 2026 at the RAI Convention Center, Amsterdam.

This article is independent and not sponsored by HLTH, Inc.