HLTH Europe 2025 highlights: How AI, Ecosystems and Evidence are Redefining Healthcare

Digital health at a turning point: from innovation to impact 

This year’s HLTH theme “Let’s Grow” reflected the importance of delivering impact and accelerating time to value. Overall, trust in and opportunity of AI is high, and collaboration and partnerships are essential to create the impact and transform healthcare. However, there are huge structural issues in healthcare (aging workforce, workforce shortages, increasing complexity, cost of care, affordability and other). The belief is that technology and AI will make care delivery more efficient, and with an improving quality and outcomes. I had the privilege to be surrounded by and learn from a range of stakeholders (patients, healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies and others), involved in creating a better future in healthcare space.   

Digital health was no longer a peripheral conversation, it was the main event. The atmosphere in Amsterdam’s RAI was charged with urgency and optimism, as stakeholders across healthcare converged to address systemic challenges with bold, tech-enabled solutions. At the heart of these discussions was a clear message: AI is no longer a future promise, it’s a present force.  The AI transformation will be bigger than the internet. Business models, including healthcare will now rapidly transform to value-based/outcomes-based models. 

After more than 20 years at UCB, I’ve seen firsthand how our commitment to innovation and patient value has evolved and accelerated. I’m excited for us to continue pushing the boundaries to improve patients’ lives worldwide.  

Here are some of my key takeaways from this year’s HLTH: 

AI goes from hype to value enabler

Together with other pharmaceutical companies, on Tuesday, 17 June I joined a panel on ‘Smart Pharma: How is AI Reshaping Med Affairs, Digital Health and Commercial?’ We discussed how AI is now deeply embedded in medical affairs, commercial operations, and R&D. Key highlights:  

• While pharma teams (clinical, medical, commercial) each bring a unique perspective, they are all aligned around improving patient outcomes and enhancing clinical workflows.
• Pharma needs to shift from pilots to collectively drive faster adoption of digital health technologies and deliver impact.
• There is a call for organizational shifts within pharma to support more agile, value-driven engagement with the healthcare ecosystem. 

But this isn’t just about automation. It’s about helping people make better decisions and uncovering insights from complex data that we couldn’t access before. Throughout the panels, workshops and keynotes, AI came up again and again not as a buzzword, but as something genuinely transforming how we work.

85% of physicians said AI can be trusted to improve quality of healthcare. Yet, only 12% received formal training on foundational AI. 

This is based on a survey on perceived helpfulness of AI tools in healthcare, highlighting a trust versus understanding paradox that must be addressed. The conversation no longer just about technology – it’s now centered on value creation, patient engagement and ecosystem collaboration.  

Inspired by innovation outside of Pharma. 

Amongst hundreds of other companies on a mission to transform digital innovation in this space, big tech’s growing influence in healthcare was evident. With initiatives spanning patient identification, daily health services, and data-driven outcomes, these partnerships are moving toward a horizontally integrated view of health journeys, ultimately shaping how data is being used. Some that stood out to me: 

• Amazon Pharmacy’s Vision: Hannah McClellan shared how Amazon is reimagining pharmacy with 24/7 access, transparent pricing, and caregiver-friendly tools. By year-end, nearly half of U.S. Prime members will have access to free medication delivery in under 24 hours.
• Google’s Health Strategy: Karen De Salvo emphasized Google’s inclusive, principled approach to AI. The aim is to empower individuals to manage their health in partnership with the system.
• Radiology & Precision Medicine: In “Imaging the Future,” Mayo Clinic and Microsoft Health Futures showcased how multi-modal AI models are transforming early detection, diagnosis, and personalized treatment, especially in radiology. 

What this means for us at UCB

It’s all about innovation. For us, this means embracing the opportunities of all that great innovation to make UCB better, to ensure our patients achieve better outcomes and their goals. Our vision is to amplify the power of scientific innovation to create sustainable value, ensuring that patients can live the lives they choose, now and in the future.  

Innovation also means equal representation. At HLTH, women’s health also featured prominently, with calls to integrate sex and gender-specific considerations into digital health and clinical trial design, especially for women of childbearing age, which my colleague Marie Teil shed light on during the conference. 

Applying AI to the data we already have

It’s all about data. The future of healthcare is about data driven decision making, leading to better outcomes in a more cost-efficient way. Interestingly, the Digital Medicine Society revealed that 85% believe AI can improve care, but 74% say the system isn’t ready. That gap came up in many discussions, pointing to a shared frustration and a shared opportunity.

 A recurring message was clear. We need to move beyond siloed pilot projects and start building scalable, data-driven ecosystems. Harmonized, privacy-conscious data sharing across borders will be essential to unlock the full potential of AI models and generate insights that benefit entire populations. The Netherlands is a great success story here, where healthcare systems worked closely with the government to tackle big unmet needs, to drive that change. Essentially, the government acted as a catalyst by setting ambitious goals and mechanisms to make it happen. It’s bottom up and top down! Furthermore, the importance of prevention and disease detection has been a recurring topic. Healthcare is now very focused on sick care. Around 90% of all costs go the last 2 years of our lives. The future is lies in keeping people healthy and driving continuous innovation to make that possible over the long term.

For our UCB teams and others, the focus is on how AI can be applied to the data we already have to generate meaningful insights. By identifying patients who are sub-optimally treated, we can intervene earlier and more effectively. AI offers the potential to improve clinical care through earlier diagnosis, better targeting of therapies, and a more nuanced understanding of disease progression.  

Agile, value-driven engagement with the healthcare ecosystem is becoming essential.  

Collaboration is no longer optional

The summit confirmed that collaboration is no longer optional, it’s a strategic imperative. Pharma, tech, regulators, and care providers are forming new hybrid models, breaking down traditional boundaries worldwide. It was also fascinating to hear just how many bold startups and scalable models re-shaping care, are proving that affordability, access and AI can go well together. The focus is shifting from treatment to prevention, longevity, and population health, with companies looking at hyper personalization of care. Hospitals and providers are increasingly proactive in remote care and digital innovation. 

At UCB, I am extremely proud of our team efforts advancing digital innovation every day. Recently, we shared how our partnership with smartpatient is helping people living with psoriasis take control of their care, through digital tools that empower, educate, and engage.

Looking ahead and seeing beyond the known

The future of healthcare is collaborative, predictive, and deeply personal. As we look to the future, a key insight emerged: we’re interpreting AI through the lens of what’s familiar, but its true value may lie in what we haven’t yet imagined. It’s in the patterns we haven’t seen, the questions we haven’t asked, and the solutions we haven’t considered. 

To unlock this potential, we must start from the patient’s perspective, working backwards from the outcomes that matter most.