Redefin­ing health­care at HLTH 2024

HLTH 2024 is recog­nised as one of the US health­care indus­try’s largest and most impact­ful con­fer­ences. This annu­al event held in Las Vegas focus­es on inno­va­tion, col­lab­o­ra­tion, and con­nect­ing indus­try lead­ers, star­tups, investors, and pol­i­cy­mak­ers. HLTH has posi­tioned itself as the event that dri­ves dis­cus­sions that influ­ence the future of health­care, tech­nol­o­gy, and aims to improve patient expe­ri­ence. Togeth­er with inno­v­a­tive health com­pa­nies from Oulu, we bold­ly stepped into health’s future, join­ing the Glob­al Health Con­nec­tor Village’s com­mu­ni­ty. We rep­re­sent­ed Busi­nes­sOulu, the OuluHealth ecosys­tem, and health com­pa­nies spread­ing the word about cut­ting-edge solu­tions devel­oped in Oulu. The event was a fan­tas­tic cel­e­bra­tion of the inno­va­tors, dis­rup­tors, and game-chang­ing entre­pre­neurs join­ing us on this jour­ney. HLTH had it all, from inspir­ing keynotes on the lat­est trends and spe­cial guest speak­ers to pan­el dis­cus­sions and an exhi­bi­tion floor fea­tur­ing 900+ exhibitors. With a great pro­gram and var­i­ous net­work­ing events, HLTH was the place to be for any­one pas­sion­ate about future health.

Las Vegas hub for health­care inno­va­tion

Held from 20 to 23 Octo­ber 2024 at the Venet­ian Con­ven­tion and Expo Cen­ter, HLTH attract­ed over 10,000 atten­dees from around the globe, from giants like Sam­sung Health and Goole Health to ris­ing stars from the dig­i­tal health start­up world. The con­fer­ence served as a per­fect net­work­ing plat­form for health­care providers, tech­nol­o­gy inno­va­tors, health enthu­si­asts, and investors, all focused on redefin­ing health­care.

The event cov­ered many top­ics, includ­ing arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence in health­care, remote mon­i­tor­ing, dig­i­tal health, genomics, patient engage­ment, val­ue-based care, inte­grat­ing wear­ables, and telemed­ical ser­vices. This blend of top­ics encour­aged col­lab­o­ra­tion that aims to accel­er­ate the adop­tion of inno­va­tions for the ben­e­fit of all indi­vid­u­als. The pro­gram high­light­ed the shift towards telemed­i­cine and remote patient mon­i­tor­ing as well as the role of mobile health apps, and the use of data ana­lyt­ics to improve chron­ic dis­ease man­age­ment. It includ­ed many dis­cus­sions on how health­care sys­tems can be restruc­tured to pro­mote greater equi­ty and access for all patients. HLTH also high­light­ed advance­ments in men­tal health as an essen­tial part of over­all patient well-being.

Some of the most antic­i­pat­ed high­lights of the pro­gram includ­ed:

Diverse pavil­ions, such as the AI, Food as Med­i­cine, and Oral Health pavil­ions, pro­vid­ed immer­sive expe­ri­ences and oppor­tu­ni­ties to explore the lat­est trends and tech­nolo­gies in health­care.

Net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties includ­ed pre-sched­uled meet­ings, ded­i­cat­ed events like the Investor Con­nect Meet­ings and Mar­ket Con­nect Meet­ings facil­i­tat­ed con­nec­tions between entre­pre­neurs, investors, and health­care stake­hold­ers. In addi­tion, the Indus­try Night con­nect­ed par­tic­i­pants in a more relax­ing Las Vegas sur­round­ing allow­ing them to unwind and net­work in an infor­mal way.

 Keynote ses­sions and pan­els fea­tured speech­es from indus­try lead­ers and experts address­ing vital top­ics in health­care. This year, an impres­sive line­up of speak­ers was present at the HLTH con­fer­ence. Halle Berry, the Oscar-win­ning actress, dis­cussed wom­en’s health and menopause. Dur­ing his pre­sen­ta­tion, the mul­ti-award-win­ning artist, John Leg­end, focused on health equi­ty and empha­sised the impor­tance of acces­si­ble health­care for all. The world-famous musi­cian Lenny Kravitz addressed the sig­nif­i­cance of oral health and reach­ing under­served com­mu­ni­ties. Joaquin Dua­to, CEO of John­son & John­son, pro­vid­ed insights on health­care from a lead­ing phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal per­spec­tive, while Greg A. Adams, CEO of Kaiser Per­ma­nente, shared his exper­tise in health management​. It can­not be left unno­ticed that the con­fer­ence also fea­tured Dr. Jill Biden, who deliv­ered remarks on wom­en’s health as part of the White House Ini­tia­tive on Wom­en’s Health Research. Her speech aimed to raise aware­ness and dri­ve action towards improv­ing health­care access and out­comes for women​.

Pitch com­pe­ti­tions allowed star­tups to present their solu­tions to a pan­el of judges and an audi­ence of poten­tial investors.

An exhi­bi­tion floor gath­ered hun­dreds of health com­pa­nies, phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, and ser­vice providers, allow­ing atten­dees to learn about new prod­ucts and tech­nolo­gies, from AI-dri­ven diag­nos­tic tools to next-gen­er­a­tion wear­ables designed to mon­i­tor patient health.

A spot­light on Finnish health inno­va­tions

Busi­nes­sOulu and Oulu-based health com­pa­nies Kipuwex, Smart PD Solu­tions, and Paras Bio­phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals were locat­ed in booths in the Glob­al Health Con­nec­tor Vil­lage. Togeth­er with BusinessOulu’s Key Account Direc­tor for Health and Life Sci­ence, Hei­di Tikan­mä­ki, the com­pa­nies bold­ly took the chance to let the world know about solu­tions devel­oped in Oulu, dig­i­tal health, 5G/ 6G tech­nolo­gies, and our thriv­ing OuluHealth ecosys­tem. Dur­ing the event, we strength­ened col­lab­o­ra­tion with our long-term part­ners, ECHAl­liance and Busi­ness Fin­land, and found new promis­ing leads for part­ner­ships.

Accord­ing to Andy Blead­en, Com­mu­ni­ties Direc­tor at ECHAl­liance, this year’s HLTH in Las Vegas has shown a very good oppor­tu­ni­ty for ecosys­tems to bring their mem­bers to a first-class event and get max­i­mum expo­sure in the US health­care mar­ket.

‘With­out Oulu, we would not have a Finnish del­e­ga­tion in the vil­lage. After more than 10 years, OuluHealth is still one of our most thriv­ing ecosys­tems, not just in Fin­land, not just in Europe. Thriv­ing because you’re pre­pared to get involved and col­lab­o­rate out­side of Fin­land. What’s been a nice sur­prise is that our ecosys­tems can share with each oth­er oppor­tu­ni­ties to col­lab­o­rate. Whether it’s from Cana­da to Fin­land or Oulu to Nor­way, or to the Flem­ish ecosys­tem from Bel­gium. I’m always pleased to see Oulu in a posi­tion of strength with­in our com­mu­ni­ty,’ said Blead­en.

As we engaged in numer­ous dis­cus­sions, we found new mean­ing­ful con­nec­tions and oppor­tu­ni­ties for col­lab­o­ra­tion. One key top­ic was Busi­ness Finland’s new Health 360 Fin­land pro­gram, which sup­ports Finnish com­pa­nies in devel­op­ing and com­mer­cial­iz­ing inter­na­tion­al­ly com­pet­i­tive health solu­tions.

‘The event is very well organ­ised and the coop­er­a­tion with Busi­nes­sOulu on the event has been fan­tas­tic. We felt like VIPs being very well tak­en care of. The stand’s loca­tion is very nice, and we appre­ci­ate the sup­port,’ said Johan Kalling, CEO at Kipuwex.

‘The event has come up to our expec­ta­tions. We hoped to find good leads, includ­ing poten­tial cus­tomers. I think it was worth cov­er­ing a long dis­tance to come here. There could be more vis­i­tors to our stand, but I know that attract­ing them to such big events is not so easy. If there is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to join this event next year, we will con­sid­er com­ing with more of our com­pa­ny rep­re­sen­ta­tives. There is quite a lot going on in Smart PD Solu­tions and we need to select the events we join care­ful­ly, but the US mar­ket is still in our focus,’ added Markku Kän­säkos­ki, CTO at Smart PD Solu­tions.

Las Vegas boasts a well-deserved rep­u­ta­tion for host­ing world-class con­fer­ences and con­ven­tions. It did not dis­ap­point atten­dees of HLTH 2024 either. The city’s infra­struc­ture, enter­tain­ment options, and acces­si­bil­i­ty secured unfor­get­table expe­ri­ences that are both pro­fes­sion­al­ly enrich­ing and per­son­al­ly enjoy­able. In con­clu­sion, HLTH proved to be more than just a con­fer­ence. By fos­ter­ing inter­ac­tions and bring­ing togeth­er diverse health com­mu­ni­ties, the event sparked vivid dis­cus­sions on how to make health­care more effi­cient, acces­si­ble, and per­son­al­ized. It enabled Oulu’s health com­pa­nies to explore new busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties and grant­ed us more vis­i­bil­i­ty glob­al­ly. Unlike they say, ‘what hap­pens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,’ we will take the expe­ri­ence and knowl­edge we gained back home.

Text and images: Joan­na Sep­pä­nen, Health & Life Sci­ence, Busi­nes­sOulu