Skip to main content

HLTH in Las Vegas: Bright Lights, Big Issues

Analysis  |  By Eric Wicklund  
   October 18, 2024

The annual HLTH conference kicks off next week with an array of topics and an unusual amount of star power. But what are healthcare leaders looking for?

Healthcare innovation takes the stage in Las Vegas next week with HLTH, but attendees heading to Sin City for the latest in health and wellness may be looking for something a bit more inclusive than in years past.

As the industry transitions, albeit slowly, to patient-centered care and embraces ideas like AI and virtual care, healthcare leaders are looking for comprehensive solutions, rather than new tools and programs that target certain conditions or populations.

It’s part of what Meghan Cassidy, senior director of sales and product development for market and network services at Cleveland Clinic, calls “point solution mania.”

“I understand why the industry started there, but now it seems there are hundreds of those types of solutions in the market,” she says. “So I am hopeful that this year [people] will come to try to figure out how to weave all of those solutions together.”

“They all have great ROI, they all have great patient outcomes, but they're ultra-segmented right now,” she adds.

Healthcare has long had this issue, and events with large exhibit halls are ideal places to view the expanse of vendors driving innovation. But the industry is in a tough place right now, struggling to address cost and quality issues and workforce shortages, and it needs programs and tools that can be applied across the enterprise, not bolting onto platforms but integrating with them—what Cassidy calls “the quilt that ties it together.”

HLTH is somewhat unique in that it attracts healthcare organizations and companies that are interested in whole patient care, rather than healthcare information technology or clinical care. So the reasons and the opportunities for integration are more apparent. And that’s why topics like food as medicine, women’s health, mental health, psychedelics and art and music treatments have a place in the exhibit hall and in sessions.

That’s also what draws a unique cross-section of the healthcare industry to Sin City. Cassidy, for example, is focused on programs and tools that would help Cleveland Clinic deliver healthcare services to employers. It’s an evolving field that hospitals and health systems are exploring, and one that the so-called disruptors like Amazon and Google have been targeting.

[Also read: Disruptors Find Delivering Healthcare Alone Isn't Easy.]

“They're not offering an app for something anymore,” she points out. “They're going in and saying, ‘Let's share risk with these primary care facilities or primary care companies and try to change the care and get more people into their primary care doctor up front. And that will of course lead to cost savings later on down the line.”

With primary care as the focal point of healthcare access, many tools and programs are aimed at reducing barriers to access and facilitating a seamless primary care visit, whether it be in person or virtual. But true innovators in this space are also expanding the definition of primary care to include more preventive health and wellness opportunities, with the idea that a consumer/patient and care provider are on a journey together.

HLTH gives healthcare executives an opportunity to expand that conversation, looking at different ways, both strategic and technological, to configure care management and coordination. And it wouldn’t be a healthcare conference if AI weren’t included in that discussion.

But HLTH also tends to draw the big names and organizations, offering solutions that those hospitals and health systems can afford to try out. Cassidy says she’d like to see more tools and strategies for smaller and more rural organizations.

“There's a lot of marquee names that are out there that are saying what they do, but they represent very large companies and have large pockets,” she says. “With the small employers who are struggling, like the mom and pop shops on the corner, thinking about more ways to intervene and help them would be very, very interesting and effective.”

And while this event in particular carries the glitz and glamor that Las Vegas attracts, there are a few more celebrities than in past years—evidence, perhaps, of the energy brought to bear on issues like maternal health, mental health and chronic conditions. First Lady Jill Biden will talk about women’s health research during a Main Stage session on Wednesday, while entertainers John Legend, Halle Berry, Maria Shriver, Lennie Kravitz and Lance Bass are scheduled to appear as well.

Regardless of the star power, HLTH offers healthcare leaders an intriguing look at how the industry is evolving beyond episodic care, and how new ideas and technologies can shape their organizations to deliver what patients not only need by want.

Eric Wicklund is the associate content manager and senior editor for Innovation at HealthLeaders.


KEY TAKEAWAYS

The annual HLTH conference sits at the junction of innovation and health and wellness, giving attendees a look at how the patient care journey is evolving.

Healthcare leaders attending the event are looking beyond point solutions that address specific conditions or populations, and are focused more on technology and strategies than can be integrated across the enterprise.


Get the latest on healthcare leadership in your inbox.