18 Insights and Hot Takes from StartUp Health @ HLTH 2022

This week nearly 100 StartUp Health portfolio companies and the StartUp Health team gathered in Las Vegas to celebrate health moonshot progress at the annual HLTH conference.

While StartUp Health @ HLTH was still fresh in the mind, we asked members of the StartUp Health ecosystem and team to share their impressions and takeaways. Here are the top responses. Share your own thoughts on HLTH and StartUp Health’s programming on Twitter with the hashtag #startuphealth.

“Innovation Lives! I was impressed by the energy and creativity of many new entrants in the industry. The commitment of these founders to change lives for the better is inspiring. As demonstrated by announcements during the HLTH conference, companies are still receiving funding. The window is still open for investment and, even if valuations have declined from record highs, the venture community remains active. Finally, it was great to convene in person again and in full force. Unlike video conferences, live meetings allow for collisions and serendipity that advance new ideas.”
~Lee Shapiro
Managing Partner, 7wireVentures

“The StartUp Health Festival experience is all about the magic fusion that happens when you connect so many passionate and dedicated innovators together at one time — it’s what a global army of Health Transformers looks like in action. You get the feeling that exponential progress is happening in real time.”
~Unity Stoakes
President and Co-founder, StartUp Health

“HLTH confirmed that traditional healthcare is no longer acceptable as the baseline and that innovation allows for diversity of participation, thought, and solution. HLTH’s focus on health equity throughout multiple forums and with many unique startups was motivating and a necessary direction that will ultimately improve care for broader patient populations.”
~Kameron Matthews, MD, JD
Chief Health Officer, Cityblock Health

“Our pre-conference work worked. We went through the entire list of attendees and found the people with whom we most wanted to speak. We met with them! Also, doctors need more exposure to healthtech. The whole medical industry will move forward.”
~Yair Saperstein, MD, MPH
Co-founder & CEO, AvoMD

“A great recurring theme was the power and importance of the personal journey and story. Helping with strategic partnerships where connecting on mission may help build internal champions to drive HTs to the right internal decision makers, and also building deeper community engagement through shared experiences and understanding.”
~Joshua Cherry-Seto
CFO & Partner, StartUp Health

“There is an amazing army of innovators trying to create better solutions and improve healthcare!”
~Josh Resnikoff
CEO & Co-founder, TMA Precision Health

“The need and desire for community is not only palpable, but overwhelming. Many people told me that, coming out of the pandemic, the best part of the event was uniting with fellow entrepreneurs and being reminded that they are “not alone.” Also, everything is connected to mental health. Whether it was a solution about sleep or nutrition or exercise or gaming, I was encouraged at how so many startups pointed back to opening up access to mental healthcare.”
~Logan Plaster
Chief Content Officer, StartUp Health

“The idea that “food as medicine” is finally having its moment with the topic being front and center for a wide-range of organizations.”
~Victor Penev
CEO & founder, Edamam

“Nothing can replace IRL. Relationships develop exponentially faster with face to face conversations, and we humans need to be together! Community is everything.”
~Katya Hancock
Chief Impact Officer, StartUp Health

“There were three obvious mega-trends across the presentations and exhibits: 1) Patient at the center of everything, 2) Calls to simplify the complexity and reduce fragmentation of healthcare, and 3) Automation of workflows. Digging beyond the headlines in the conversations, however (the benefit of being here in person!), reveals very different approaches to these three trends that lead to very different outcomes. At one extreme, a world where patients are better managed by automated systems that largely bypass their clinicians, with little independence or human connections. At the other extreme, flexible solutions that empower patients and clinicians to use digital tools within their different realities. As a physician and a patient, I want to make the latter scenario happen — a better future where people matter and have choices.”
~Alexandra T. Greenhill, MD
CEO & Co-founder, Careteam

“HLTH has become a major “must attend” event for innovators, investors, and those passionate about making a difference in healthcare today.”
~Renee Ryan
CEO & Co-founder, Cala Health

“My biggest take away from HLTH 2022 was the focus on health equity in numerous conversations. Attendees were eager to move beyond the business case and definitions to learn how to make healthcare more equitable and inclusive through systems of accountability and transparency.”
~Felix Chinea, MD
StartUp Health’s Health Equity Moonshot Impact Board Member

“Innovation is alive and well in healthcare. The question is, with a recession on the horizon will innovation funding be there to help entrepreneurs advance their ideas?”
~Brian McCourt
CEO & Co-founder, The Able Channel

“While the media may have negative headlines about a bad market and funding dropping, the overwhelming majority of investors and startups I spoke with are very optimistic about the funding landscape. Healthcare is essential to all humans and money will still continue to pour in. What seems like a drop in funding is really more of a leveling out of the last few high-growth pandemic years.”
~Lauren Schafer
Ventures Director, StartUp Health

“I was encouraged by seeing so many women of all ages and POC represented, on the ground and on stage.”
~Nicole Kinsey
Media Manager & Webmaster, StartUp Health

“The power of community. Throughout the conference, that theme really reverberated with me based on what I saw in our pavilion and what I was hearing in conversations with Health Transformers and other investors. The feeling of being part of something bigger and being aligned with others who are working towards similar missions empowers founders to keep pushing through the various challenges they’re encountering in these markets and of course, the daily ups and downs that come with entrepreneurship.”
~Padma Rao
Platform Manager, StartUp Health

“We really need to lean into our role as Health Transformers and support each other if we want to achieve our moonshots and manifest the kind of change we hope to see (and so desperately need).”
~Scott Kaiser, MD
CEO & Co-founder, Determined Health

“StartUp Health is a very unique organization and IMO every company and founder that is being supported by this org genuinely cares about making a difference. It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen and it’s one of the main reasons I’ve joined the community. StartUp Health as an organization is a breath of fresh air compared to what’s going on out there otherwise. I really am grateful for the care, commitment, and diligence of the StartUp Health team to actually support solutions that have an ability to make a real impact.”
~Leah Houston, MD
CEO & Founder, HPEC

Passionate about breaking down health barriers? If you’re an entrepreneur or investor, contact us to learn how you can join our Health Equity Moonshot.

Investors: Learn how you can invest in Health Moonshots through StartUp Health’s impact fund.

Digital health entrepreneur? Don’t make the journey alone. Learn more about the StartUp Health Community and how StartUp Health invests.

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18 Insights and Hot Takes from StartUp Health @ HLTH 2022 was originally published in StartUp Health on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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