The HLTH USA 2025 conference in Las Vegas had all the usual hallmarks of a can’t-miss industry event: packed sessions, endless demos, crushed step goals, and maybe one too many lattes. Yet this year’s vibe felt different. Despite the excitement, the hype had a restrained quality, the buzzwords were fewer, and the substance was stronger. Across every corner of the show floor, the message was clear: digital health and health-tech are growing up.
Of course, the A-Team was on the ground at the Venetian Expo Center helping clients share their stories and soaking in what’s next for health tech. Although the companies and perspectives at HLTH this year were as diverse as usual, our experienced PR and marketing professionals observed some differences: AI has moved from novelty to necessity; investment in women’s health, disease prevention, and patient partnership is reaching new heights; and overall, solutions are reaching new levels of personalization. In greater detail, here are their biggest takeaways.
AI Finds Its Footing in the Real World
According to Jodi Amendola, President and Founder of Amendola Communications, “Companies that brought outcomes and ROI to life with customer and patient stories were the ones resonating most. Companies that effectively communicated how their innovation is delivering real-world impact really stood out.”
Jodi also reflected on what makes HLTH such a special event. “What struck me most was the sheer enthusiasm across the digital health community. These are passionate, like-minded people who truly want to improve healthcare. Conversations around AI, the changing market, and new legislation were everywhere. I left grateful for the connections, collaboration, and energy that continue to push this industry forward.”
Evolving from Buzzword to Backbone
While AI still dominated nearly every booth and session, the conversations this year focused less on what it might do and more on what it is doing right now.
“AI is no longer a differentiator; it’s a given,” said Michelle Noteboom, Senior Account Director. “Nearly every company had an AI angle, whether in the form of applications, platforms, or tools designed to automate time-consuming or tedious aspects of healthcare workflows.”
But with expansion comes new challenges, Michelle noted. “As AI generates huge amounts of new data, the focus appears to be shifting toward data quality, interoperability, and ethical monetization,” she added. “How can organizations ensure that data is clean, usable, and privacy-preserving? Those questions dominated the conversations.”
Another new trend Michelle observed was the rise of “agentic AI,” the term for autonomous agents built for specific healthcare tasks such as prior authorizations, referrals, and claims management. “It is clear that many solutions and healthcare organizations represented at HLTH have far transcended pilot projects and are well into practical deployments,” she said. “The AI that reduces administrative friction and enhances care delivery is a clear early winner.”
Industry Lines Blur
Beyond AI, the HLTH show floor revealed another major trend: healthcare’s growing convergence across traditional boundaries.
As Grace Vinton, Account Director and Media Specialist, observed, “Innovations that once targeted specific verticals are crossing over. Solutions built for health systems are gaining traction with pharma, while employers are adopting payer tools. There’s a growing spirit of collaboration across sectors, all aimed at strengthening margins, improving data access, and driving sustainable transformation.”
Grace also predicted a wave of consolidation in the coming year. “There are so many point solutions proving real, measurable impact,” she said. “It feels like we’re on the verge of major M&A activity as these niche players find their homes in larger ecosystems.”
That spirit of collaboration extended beyond vendors and investors to include patients themselves, whose voices are increasingly central to healthcare innovation.
“One of my favorite parts of HLTH25 was the ‘Ask Patients’ Genius Bar,” Grace added. “Seeing patients and caregivers recognized as lived-experience experts is the future of healthcare innovation. It’s no longer enough for technologists to guess what people want. Patients and caregivers are stepping into paid, official roles in research and product design, which is long overdue.”
Human-Centered Innovation
The renewed focus on patient experience mirrored the industry’s shift toward more personalized and preventive care.
“As a first-time HLTH attendee, it was exciting to see how innovation is becoming more human-centered,” said Maddie Noteboom, Senior Account and Social Media Manager. “AI, automation, and analytics are working quietly in the background to help clinicians make better decisions and give patients a smoother, more personalized care experience. The companies making real progress are the ones using technology to handle the busywork so care teams can focus on patients and help them achieve better outcomes and health goals.”
Katlyn Nesvold, Senior Account Director, agreed that the tone at HLTH25 reflected more profound empathy and purpose. “There was so much emotion in the conversations,” she said. “It is a sign of the times and an indicator that this is important work we are doing. We all need to come together to improve healthcare access, and hopefully AI’s rapid development will help.”
Alongside this more human approach, HLTH 2025 also spotlighted several fast-growing areas of innovation and investment beyond AI.
Grace noted that “Women’s health took center stage, with major funding announcements and a surge of new market entrants. It’s one of the most untapped opportunities in healthcare innovation, and momentum is building fast.”
Katlyn added that weight management was another major topic of conversation. “Yes, GLP-1s were everywhere,” she said, “but many vendors are now offering holistic alternatives, such as digital health tools, remote coaching, and preventive programs, to help people manage their health without relying solely on medication.”
A Tight-Knit Community
Amid all the innovation and buzz, HLTH 2025 also reminded attendees of the value of connection and community in the health IT world.
“The health IT community is like no other,” Katlyn shared. “It is full of great people doing meaningful work. The best conversations often happen outside the show floor, such as at dinners, meetups, and chance encounters between sessions, where collaboration begins.”
Michelle agreed, pointing to Amendola’s own whirlwind of activity. “We were thrilled to help facilitate over 100 media meetings in just three days,” she said. “The level of engagement and curiosity was incredible, but it also shows how hungry the market is to understand where healthcare innovation is really headed.”
Looking Ahead
If HLTH 2025 made anything clear, it is that the industry has moved from inspiration to implementation. AI is no longer a novelty; it is an expectation. Patients are no longer passive participants; they are partners. And despite the flash and fanfare associated with such a major industry event, this year’s HLTH demonstrated that health tech and digital health success is not about who shouts the loudest, but rather who delivers meaningful, measurable outcomes.
At Amendola Communications, those are the stories we are proud to help tell.
Jodi Amendola, CEO of Amendola Communications and Greg Miller, vice president of business development at Carta Healthcare sit down for a fireside chat to discuss navigating the evolving landscape of healthcare marketing and industry events. They explore the changing dynamics of conferences like HIMSS, HLTH, and ViVE, emphasizing the importance of aligning event participation with business objectives and target audiences. The conversation delves into effective strategies for leveraging social media and digital channels to enhance brand awareness, build relationships, and drive growth, all while highlighting the value of a focused and resource-conscious approach in today’s competitive market.
My colleague Philip Anast recently shared some advice from the Wall Street Journal via the Advisory Board regarding situations “where it’s better to slow down at work.”
Let’s be honest: In the hyper-paced world of healthcare public relations and marketing, where there’s a product rollout, speaker submission, or awards deadline around every corner, the notion of “slowing down at work” is downright antithetical. When you’re managing multiple accounts – and trying to make each feel as if they are your highest priority – you instinctively fear that slowing things down will derail your strategic timelines, frustrate your clients, and send your blood pressure soaring. Why make an already intense job even more stressful?
The answer is there are times in PR and marketing where slowing down is essential to doing the best job for your clients, your agency, and your sanity. Here are three situations when slowing down pays off in PR and marketing. These apply to in-house marketing/PR pros, who face pressures similar to those of agency workers.
When you’re the final set of eyes
Marketing and PR pros must create and process high-level, detailed content every day. Thought-leadership bylines, case studies, white papers, press releases, sales sheets, analyst pitches – it never ends. If your client is a life sciences company, you may be writing about concepts that may be ever-so-slightly outside your wheelhouse. That’s OK – you probably didn’t go to medical school, and your yearslong devotion to Grey’s Anatomy will only get you so far.
Still, when you’re delivering content assets, it’s important to get everything right. And no matter how many people look at the “final” draft of a byline, press release, or other public-facing deliverable, someone will be the last set of eyes before the news release is sent to Cision or the byline to your client’s CEO.
Even if it’s the 10th time you’ve read it, do so with intense focus just one more time. Read slowly, scan for typos, and pay attention to flow and impact. This is your last chance! Put another way, if there’s something wrong that you didn’t catch, you may be catching flak from the client, who is paying the agency good money to not mess up content.
When your client wants to do something impulsive and perhaps ill-advised
Clients can be quite emotional. Which is understandable. They’re under pressure on multiple fronts from competitors and investors. They are responsible for executing on product, market, and growth strategies. They’re probably working 70 hours a week. Plus their chief marketing officer just abandoned the company for a new job. And their kids have the flu.
Nonetheless, when the client’s CEO decides what the company needs to do is issue a press release every day for a week before HLTH to carpet-bomb the market into recognizing the pioneering brilliance of their platform (something I heard an investor for a startup insist on), you must slow their roll. Politely but firmly explain how a press release a day doesn’t really align with the rhythm of how the healthcare tech media operates – “Company X made a big splash today. I can’t wait to see what they’ve cooked up for tomorrow!” said no tech reporter, ever – and that it also would be a waste of money. (The money message eventually got through to the investor.)
Similarly, if a CEO wants to confront that editor from Healthcare IT News who omitted the company from a roundup of startups to watch in Sector Z in the coming year and clearly harbors a grudge against us, you must counsel restraint. Emphasize the importance of cultivating long-term relationships with the media, analysts, and others in the industry ecosystem who could help the company down the road. Just giving your excitable clients some time to vent often is enough to defuse a mini-crisis.
When there’s a full-blown PR crisis
Sometimes an actualcrisis will arise – your client’s product is the subject of a recall or warning, a customer files a major lawsuit, an investigative article in the mainstream media that mentions the company in a negative light blows up on social media, etc. You’ve got to move fast or things will quickly spin out of control!
Making a public statement that can be easily contradicted, however, will only worsen the problem. Thus, it is imperative that you know the facts. Make sure you take the time to gather all the facts surrounding the issue and are interpreting them correctly. You only have one chance to respond the first time to a crisis. Make it count.
Conclusion
In the PR and marketing biz, you need to think fast and move fast. Sometimes, though, slower is better.
Sometimes you say what everybody is thinking. And when that happens, the reaction can be tangible and immediate.
I was a member of a panel at the recent HIMSS conference and was talking about misinformation. At one point I observed, “Healthcare has a B2B problem, but it’s not business to business; it’s boring to boring.”
All of a sudden everybody started snapping their fingers. I hadn’t seen this reaction before and asked whether people were trying to get my attention. It was confusing! Someone said, “No, you’re on fire.” It seems they agreed with what I said and wanted me to keep going, but didn’t want to interrupt me by clapping. Hence the snapping.
That interesting cultural moment wasn’t about me, but about an awareness clearly shared by most healthcare PR and marketing professionals: Healthcare technology companies and their buyers are mired in boredom. Boring problems. Boring solutions. Boring conversations.
The sad reality is that both healthcare technology companies and their customers – providers, payers, and third parties – are afraid to express a strong opinion or point of view for fear of losing business opportunities.
We’re all sick of boring. Still, I get it: Clients don’t want to confuse or concern a potential customer by saying something audacious or expressing bold thoughts. Healthcare tech companies want to focus their message on what their product does and the problems it can solve for customers. No point in straying from focused thought leadership.
While I understand the strategic impulse toward boring, companies that want to stand out from their competitors need to get more creative with their messaging without confusing buyers or pigeonholing the company as providing a specific solution to a specific problem. Otherwise they may continue to float anonymously in a sea of boring.
Below are some tips for healthcare marketing and PR pros to help their clients and organizations inject some personality and perspective into their messaging.
Connect on a human level
This is healthcare. By definition, it’s about people; serving people and connecting with people. One of the best ways to connect with people is to tell a compelling story. People love hearing stories and are drawn in by a narrative arc that features a journey with highs and lows, challenges and triumphs, and lessons learned.
Great storytellers are relatable and interesting and thus able to connect with an audience. Their stories create a whole world that provides context, rather than running an audience through a tedious list of specific product features and use cases. To sell your product, tell your story.
Go multimedia
Storytelling is about more than the written word. Audio and video are powerful mediums for healthcare technology companies to tell their stories. Not only do some audience members absorb information more efficiently through multimedia, allowing them to see and hear the people behind a healthcare technology company leverages that human connection we all seek.
Even a great infographic or data visualization provides a multimedia tool that can help you articulate a story and emphasize key points. Audience members have diverse learning styles and digital literacy skills; adding a multimedia element to your message will broaden its reach.
Initiate and be part of a conversation
Rather than just relentlessly pumping out marketing collateral, healthcare technology companies should strive to be thought leaders in their sector. Having a voice in an ongoing conversation establishes credibility and puts a human face on the company. Healthcare is a mission-based career, so advocating for your mission and what you believe in resonates with a like-minded audience. People don’t follow companies; they follow other people with great ideas.
Bylined articles published on respected healthcare websites are a great vehicle for demonstrating sector expertise and thought leadership. When potential buyers think you really “get” their challenges, they’ll remember you and your company.
Social media also provides an excellent platform for conversations and idea exchange. LinkedIn probably is the best for healthcare professionals, though many also actively use X. Healthcare technology leaders also can connect with their community through organizations like HIMSS or CHIME.
Finally, some healthcare technology companies have been successful in using podcasts to tell their stories. Some are even launching their own podcasts to provide another venue for interacting with an audience.
Speak the truth (with humor)
The great comedians find humor in everyday life. They also find humor in the truth. If healthcare technology leaders speak the truth to their audiences and find a way to inject humor into the message, they will stand out from the crowd. Humor that is informed by a deep understanding of the industry and the challenges of a particular sector can be memorable. If your humorous truths support your value proposition, all the better.
Conclusion
Healthcare technology companies that hide in the herd and play it safe get ignored. To rise above the boring noise and get your message across, you need to inject your marketing and PR initiatives with a strong storyline framework that employs passion, humanity, humor, and a distinctive voice. Sincerity sells because it’s real and conveys a compelling message: We’re all in this together.
