As we close out 2025, digital health has shifted decisively from promise to practice, with HITLAB at the forefront of this change.

This past year was about delivering evidence, growing programs, and bringing the right people together to move healthcare forward in practical ways. The hundreds of people at the Lab and the nearly 500,000 community members globally continued to serve as a trusted platform where innovators, providers, life-science leaders, researchers, investors, and policymakers could have serious discussions and turn those discussions into action.

At the forefront of digital health technology research, HITLAB conducted nearly 200 studies and published 37 papers and posters examining digital health solutions and startups globally. These efforts reinforce our commitment to producing practical, evidence-based insights that inform decisions around the development and adoption of technology in healthcare and life sciences.

In May, HITLAB hosted the 2nd Annual New York City Health Innovation Week, bringing together 5,000 leaders to Manhattan from across the healthcare ecosystem for a week of 33 events focused around the City on the future of health technology. The conversations were honest, the debates were rigorous, and the outcomes were grounded in the real-world challenges facing care delivery today.

In December, we built on this momentum with our three-day Digital Health Evidence Summit, which brought together over 500 speakers and participants from around the world. What started as a single event grew into a series of focused symposia on key healthcare topics, along with two high-impact networking events, made possible with the support of FINN Partners and Silicon Valley Bank.

Across the year, HITLAB also organized 11 Digital Health Symposia, addressing critical issues spanning care delivery, life sciences, artificial intelligence, access, and patient experience. These sessions were intentionally designed to go beyond trend-spotting, prioritizing evidence, implementation lessons, and actionable insight.

Women’s health remained a core strategic priority. In 2025 alone, HITLAB hosted over 50 Women’s Health Tech Wednesday sessions, amplifying global perspectives and highlighting practical solutions to longstanding and often overlooked gaps in women’s healthcare. We further advanced this mission through the HITLAB Women’s Health Tech Challenge, supporting innovators tackling some of the most urgent unmet needs in this space.

In partnership with AARP, HITLAB also launched the Agetech Challenge, focused on accelerating technologies that promote healthier aging and improved quality of life for older adults – an issue of growing urgency for healthcare systems worldwide.

This year also marked the formal launch of three HITLAB Centers of Excellence, each designed to provide sustained infrastructure for collaboration, validation, and evidence generation:

• The Breakthrough Alliance (BTA)
• Women’s Health Tech Initiative (WHTI)
• Center for AI Testing and Evidence (CAITE).

Together, these centers reflect HITLAB’s belief that progress in healthcare requires not just innovation, but credible evaluation, cross-sector collaboration, and disciplined execution.

Looking ahead, we are already preparing for two Digital Health Innovators Summits in May and December 2026, as we continue to convene the healthcare community around innovation that delivers measurable, real-world impact.

None of this work happens in isolation. I am deeply grateful to our partners, sponsors, speakers, researchers, and community members. Your engagement, candor, and collaboration are what give HITLAB its relevance and momentum.

As we enter 2026, our focus remains unchanged: advancing healthcare innovation that is credible, inclusive, and grounded in evidence. I look forward to continuing this work together.

Sincerely,

John Hammit, Global Director, Healthcare Innovation and Technology Lab