Looking Ahead: What Happens at HLTH Vegas Doesn’t Stay in Vegas

In its seventh year, HLTH has become more healthcare’s annual reunion, where the whole ecosystem collides: investors, clinicians, payers, founders, pharma leaders, and everyone in between. It’s 12,000 people and 2,750 CEOs in one place, all trying to answer the same question: what’s next?

This year’s theme, Heroes and Legends, is both a nod to the industry’s quiet doers and a challenge to those shaping the next decade of care. Whether your cape looks like an FDA approval, a Series C raise, or an algorithm that actually works in the wild, HLTH USA 2025 is the stage to tell your story.

Part Conference, Part Chaos…HLTH

From October 19–22, Las Vegas becomes the unofficial capital of healthcare innovation. HLTH USA promises an all-in experience—equal parts spectacle and substance.

There’s the art gallery and podcast lounge for the content-hungry crowd, the Nurse Hackathon for frontline creativity, and 10 pitch competitions for those chasing their Shark Tank moment. Speaking of which, yes—Mark Cuban will be there. Expect at least one “I’m out” joke, and many startups hoping he isn’t.

But HLTH has never been about spectacle for spectacle’s sake. It’s a place where the future of care gets pressure-tested. Whether it’s Market Connect’s dealmaking marathons or Investor Connect’s founder speed-dating sessions, every corner of the event is built around accelerating outcomes.

Some of 2025’s Frontier Themes

1. AI & Emerging Technology: The Year the Models Get Real

AI in healthcare has officially moved past the hype phase. At HLTH, we’re seeing less “what if AI could do this” and more “here’s how we’re doing it—and here’s what broke along the way.”

The AI Zone this year brings together health systems, payers, big tech, and scrappy startups to tackle real-world use cases: clinical decision support, care coordination, and the suddenly urgent question of how to regulate all of it without freezing innovation.

Expect discussions around responsible scaling, model validation, and AI equity—because even the best algorithm is useless if it doesn’t work for all patients.

2. Diagnostics: From Reactive Care to Predictive Everything

If AI is the brain of healthcare’s future, diagnostics is the nervous system—sensing, signaling, and increasingly shaping every clinical and financial decision.

This year, HLTH spotlights diagnostics as a core driver of value-based, proactive care. Expect conversations that go beyond lab tests—into digital biomarkers, at-home screening, and data interoperability that might actually, finally, make sense.

As we noted in both of our diagnostics pieces, this field isn’t just innovating—it’s redefining the economics of health. When detection happens earlier, prevention becomes profitable.

3. Substance Use Disorders: Finally Front and Center

It’s long overdue, but the Substance Use Pavilion is giving this crucial sector the platform it deserves. Substance use care has too often been pushed to the margins of mainstream health discussions—treated as an afterthought in both funding and policy.

This year’s programming changes that. From digital therapeutics and data-driven recovery platforms to community-based innovation, HLTH is shining a spotlight on those rewriting the playbook.

In our previous piece, we explored how stigma and fragmentation have slowed progress—and how a new wave of founders and payers are building integrated models that treat substance use as the chronic, complex condition it is. Expect that conversation to get much louder in Vegas.

4. Employers and the Business of Well-Being

The Employer & Workforce Health track is quietly becoming one of HLTH’s most dynamic spaces. Amid rising costs and an exhausted workforce, companies are reimagining how to keep employees healthier, longer, and more engaged.

We are no longer concerned with step challenges and mental health apps anymore. It’s about fundamentally shifting employer-sponsored care—from reactive coverage to proactive health equity. Expect HR leaders, benefits innovators, and payers to share real-world data on outcomes that actually move the needle.

Some of the most interesting innovation is happening here—at the messy intersection of culture, technology, and reimbursement.

5. Food as Medicine: Where Healthcare Meets the Grocery Aisle

The Food Lab continues to gain momentum as one of HLTH’s most buzzed-about zones. With nutrition science colliding with digital health, the line between clinical care and consumer wellness keeps getting thinner.

You’ll see insurers partnering with grocers, providers prescribing meal plans alongside medications, and startups turning the concept of “food as medicine” into scalable business models.

It’s also where healthcare starts to feel human again—where the data meets daily life, and food becomes part of the care plan, not an afterthought.

🩺 Community Roundtable: Seamless RPM – Turning Fragmented Data into Connected Care

October 20, 2025 | 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM PDT | Las Vegas
(In Partnership with Infosys)

As the industry races to connect data, devices, and patients, HLTH is taking the conversation beyond buzzwords with Seamless RPM — a roundtable for leaders tackling real-world integration challenges. From interoperability to workflow design, this closed-door session will explore how to turn fragmented data streams into proactive, personalized care. For those driving connected health strategies, it’s one not to miss.

The People Powering the Legends

HLTH has always been about the people behind the headlines. Expect to see:

• Greg Adams, CEO of Kaiser Permanente, bringing the health system perspective to scale and sustainability.
  
  

• Dave Moore, President of Novo Nordisk Inc., fresh off a year of headline-grabbing breakthroughs in chronic disease and metabolic health.
  
  

• As already mentioned, Mark Cuban, probably reminding everyone that healthcare’s pricing problem isn’t that complicated (and that generic drugs can be sexy too).
  
  

Around them will be 400+ speakers and a few thousand hallway conversations that never make the program—but often change careers.

💬 Community Think Tank: Architecting the Future of Patient Experience

October 20, 2025 | 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM PDT | Las Vegas
(In Partnership with ZS Associates)

For pharma leaders rethinking how to truly reach and support patients, Architecting the Future of Patient Experience offers a bold roadmap. Co-hosted by HLTH and ZS, this half-day program dives into how innovation, AI, and direct-to-patient models are redefining engagement. Expect actionable insights on how to create holistic ecosystems that empower patients, enhance adherence, and drive measurable health outcomes.

💡 Community Roundtable: Payer Innovation – Build, Buy, or Partner?

October 21, 2025 | 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM PDT | Las Vegas
(In Partnership with aMoon Fund)

As digital-first, value-based models accelerate, payers face a defining choice: what to build, what to buy, and when to partner. Payer Innovation: Build, Buy, or Partner? convenes senior payor executives for a candid, off-the-record discussion on strategy, technology, and growth. Expect a rare look inside how industry leaders are navigating transformation and identifying the smartest paths to sustainable innovation.