Readers Write: HLTH 2024 Did It Again

HLTH 2024 Did It Again
By Mike Silverstein

Mike Silverstein is managing partner of healthcare IT and life sciences at Direct Recruiters, Inc.

Once again, HLTH 2024 delivered. In my opinion, HLTH has become the most important healthcare conference on the calendar, and this week’s event in Las Vegas did not disappoint. While sales teams manning booths may have found it less fruitful for direct lead generation, that’s not the true purpose of this conference. HLTH and its sister conference ViVE are where healthcare’s biggest strategic moves are set into motion.

No other event except perhaps the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference brings together such a diverse mix of healthcare investors and vendors from around the world under one roof. HLTH plays a crucial role in shaping the industry’s three- to five-year outlook, and I would argue that it’s even more impactful than JPM since it fosters face-to-face connections in one concentrated venue.

Despite ongoing political uncertainties, the market flywheel is starting to spin again. After a year and a half of valuation struggles, investors and companies are finding common ground. Investment bankers who I spoke with mentioned that deals are once again flowing, and I expect a wave of health tech and healthcare services companies to announce successful funding rounds in the coming months.

Interest rates are beginning to tick down, and HLTH serves as a prime meeting point for key players across the ecosystem — vendors, payers, providers, life sciences, and employers. As healthcare costs continue to rise, software designed to reduce expenses and drive system-wide efficiency is becoming indispensable. Unlike HIMSS, which is more narrowly focused on health systems, HLTH brings together the entire healthcare economy, providing early-stage investors with access to companies on the cutting edge of innovation.

AI was the dominant theme at HLTH, and its influence is only expanding. The companies that are making the most traction attracted significant attention from investors who are eager to deploy capital from the funds raised in 2022, which remained largely untapped in 2023 and early 2024. These companies are focusing not only on cost reduction, but also on addressing the looming clinician shortage that will hit the healthcare system over the next decade.

Solutions that reduce time spent by doctors and nurses on administrative tasks, allowing them to focus more on patient care, are in high demand. Technologies like ambient scribing and workflow tools that augment Epic are gaining traction, helping clinicians operate at the top of their licenses. Additionally, AI is finally showing real potential to address healthcare’s persistent interoperability challenges, a problem that has long frustrated the industry.

While the upcoming election could reshape parts of the healthcare landscape, HLTH 2024 reaffirmed a more immediate truth: the healthcare industry is primed for growth and innovation, with investors ready to fuel the next wave of transformation.