Business Leaders and Industry Experts Join Top Policymakers to Address Pivotal Issues in Health Globally at the Milken Institute 2024 Future of Health Summit
The Milken Institute 2024 Future of Health Summit opens today, gathering hundreds of renowned business leaders, health experts, and policymakers to explore and catalyze ideas to address the most consequential issues shaping the future of health. Centered around the unifying theme “Partnering for Better Health,” attendees and viewers of the two-day event, November 13–14 at the Salamander in Washington, DC, will hear from leaders such as Monica Bertagnolli, director, National Institutes of Health; Rob Califf, commissioner, Food and Drug Administration; Mandy Cohen, director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; John Crowley, president and CEO, Biotechnology Innovation Organization; Atul Gawande, assistant administrator for global health, US Agency for International Development; Kimryn Rathmell, director, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health; and many more.
With more than 50 conversations and panel sessions, speakers will share unique and diverse insights on a wide range of interconnected health topics, such as biomedical research and technological innovation, chronic disease and prevention, rare disease research, patient engagement, mental health, healthy aging and longevity, health policy and equity, Food Is Medicine, gun violence prevention, public health, and so much more.
“As discussions around the future of health continue to unfold during this time, we cannot overlook the need for a comprehensive approach to health-care transformation that includes not only technological innovation but also a commitment to important factors such as health equity and environmental consciousness,” said Richard Ditizio, CEO of the Milken Institute. “The importance of diversity in leadership cannot be overstated, especially when dealing with complex health issues that affect a wide range of people and communities. By bringing together leaders with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and insights, we work to ensure that the solutions crafted are holistic, inclusive, and reflective of our collective needs.”
During the summit, the Milken Institute will announce new initiatives and provide exciting updates on work to advance better health through partnership and actionable solutions, including:
- Preparing the US Health System for the Future of Cancer Care—A new project of FasterCures supported by Guardant Health will examine how advances in cancer diagnostics may change the future of cancer care. This includes exploring the implications for patients, industry, providers, and payers, as well as for the broader US health system. “This collaboration with the Milken Institute allows us to chart a transformative vision for health care, where cancer care and disease detection overall evolve with advances in AI, new screening modalities, and more,” said Helmy Eltoukhy, co-CEO and co-founder of Guardant Health. “We’re excited to be part of a movement that sees cancer detection and care as an interconnected journey, bringing together diagnostics and treatment, leading to improved outcomes at a lower cost and overall sustained health.”
- Democratizing Access to Clinical Trials—FasterCures’ Enabling Networks of Research Infrastructure for Community Health through Clinical Trials (ENRICH-CT) initiative, a multistakeholder coalition comprising business, government, and nonprofit leaders, is launching three projects addressing barriers to building more community-based clinical trial infrastructure. FasterCures is also releasing a report on new players and platforms that can enable more person-centered approaches to clinical research and democratize access to trials.
- Advancing Health through Employers—Launched this year, the Employer Action Exchange platform provides active projects and ongoing engagement for employers across sectors and industries to advance whole-person health via their business, community investment, and employee commitments. Projects include work with EverFi focused on understanding the scalability and reach of employer social impact K-12 investments and Leidos exploring whole-person health investments employers can make with remote and/or isolated work environments that advance health and performance.
“We are meeting at a time of great potential, where the pace of health innovation is matched by the need to focus on the fundamentals of prevention and access to care,” said Esther Krofah, EVP of Health at the Milken Institute. “Partnerships are essential, as no one sector can do it alone. This summit is an opportunity to spotlight the research, policy, best practices, and innovative partnerships that will move the conversation to more comprehensive solutions.”
A robust lineup of summit panels offers a wide range of diverse topics, including the following: Innovation for All: Strategies for Maximizing Impact, How Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Advancements Are Meeting the Moment and Beyond, Bringing Whole-Person Health to the Workplace, Global Collaboration to Eradicate Women’s Cancers, What’s Next in Aging: Leveraging Plans and Progress to Meet the Moment, Harnessing Community Power: Driving Health Equity Research, The Next Frontier in Mental Health Research, Why Younger People Are Getting Cancer and What We Can Do About It, Food as Engagement: Implications for Health and Access to Care, Building Safer Communities: Public Health Approaches to Gun Violence Prevention, and much more.
More than 200 leaders in government, philanthropy, health care, academia, research, patient advocacy, the investment community, and more will lend their expertise and insights, including Alex Azar, 24th US secretary of Health and Human Services; Buddy Carter, US representative, Georgia; Diana DeGette, US representative, Colorado; Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director, Moms Demand Action; Vanessa Kerry, CEO, Seed Global Health special envoy for climate change and health, World Health Organization; Suzanne McCormick, president and CEO, YMCA of the USA; Jay Obernolte, US representative, California, and chairman, US House Task Force on AI; Arati Prabhakar, assistant to the president and director, Office of Science and Technology Policy, The White House; Meena Seshamani, deputy administrator and director of Center for Medicare, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; Tom Vilsack, secretary, US Department of Agriculture; Renee Wegrzyn, director, Advanced Research Projects for Health (ARPA-H).
Upwards of 1,000 participants will attend the Future of Health Summit. Companies and organizations participating in the summit include Abbott, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, City of Hope, Deloitte, Delta Dental, Eli Lilly and Company, GSK, Guardant Health, Kroger, Leidos, McKesson, NYU Langone, PhRMA, Royalty Pharma, Mayo Clinic, and more.
The theme of “Partnering for Better Health” underscores the importance of collaboration in addressing health challenges across the globe. By fostering partnerships among various stakeholders, including health-care providers, technology innovators, industry experts, government agencies, and advocacy groups, the summit aims to catalyze transformative solutions that enhance health-care delivery and improve patient outcomes.
The Milken Institute is live streaming the Future of Health Summit public sessions, expanding access to the event. Review the conference agenda and watch the public sessions.
Alongside the Future of Health Summit, the Milken Institute is pleased to release three reports that elevate critical components of health and are tied to ongoing programmatic work, with another to be released shortly after the summit:
- Community-Based Infrastructure for Inclusive Research: Democratizing Access to Research
- Prescription for Biomedical Innovation: Recommendations for the Next Administration
- Protecting Youth Online: Insights and Actions for Communities, Policymakers, and Organizations
- The Reinvention of Prevention: How to Fund and Finance a Pivot to a Prevention-First Healthcare System (December release)
Milken Institute Health engages hundreds of leaders directly through programs and council advisory roles that inform and guide the Institute’s work. This includes the FasterCures Advisory Board, which announced new members to join effective January 2025, including John Halamka, president, Mayo Clinic Platform, The Mayo Clinic, and Greg Simon, president, Simonovation, and the Public Health Advisory Board, with new members effective November 2024: Ashwin Vasan, assistant professor, clinical population health & medicine, Columbia University, James McCune Smith Distinguished Fellow at the Meharry School of Global Health, and former commissioner, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
