Milken Institute's Future of Health Summit 2026 Opens in Washington, DC, Focused on “Better Health Within Reach”

Leading voices in health care convene November 11–13 to tackle affordability and access, advance policies that achieve better health, and harness AI’s expanding role in care to improve lives worldwide.

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Milken Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank focused on accelerating measurable progress on the path to a meaningful life, opens its Future of Health Summit 2026 today at The Potomac Hotel in Washington, DC, running through November 13. The Summit convenes more than 1,200 health stakeholders and 200 speakers including CEOs, policymakers, researchers, and patient advocates under the theme “Better Health Within Reach” to examine the forces driving the next era of health.

The Summit convenes at a time when affordability and access are pressing concerns for health care systems around the world. Across countries, leaders face a shared challenge: how to translate extraordinary advances into better health that people can access. The Future of Health Summit offers an opportunity to explore new approaches to how care is delivered so that more people can benefit from this progress.

Confirmed speakers for this year's Summit include:

• Noubar Afeyan — Founder and CEO, Flagship Pioneering; Co-founder and Chairman, Moderna
• Stéphane Bancel — Chief Executive Officer, Moderna
• Jay Bhattacharya — Director, National Institutes of Health
• Jill Biden — Former First Lady of the United States; Chair, Milken Institute Women’s Health Network
• Anthony Letai — Director, National Cancer Institute
• Amy Perry — President and CEO, Banner Health
• Kimberly Powell — Vice President, Healthcare and Life Sciences, NVIDIA
• David Rhew — Global Chief Medical Officer and Vice President, Health and Life Sciences, Microsoft
• Erica Schwartz — Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Allen Sills — Chief Medical Officer, National Football League
• Robert Stone — CEO, City of Hope

Breakthroughs in science and technology are opening new possibilities to prevent disease, deliver care in more places, and help people live longer, healthier lives. With AI expanding what researchers and clinicians can do, the opportunity to improve health has never been greater.

“The opportunity before us is to turn extraordinary scientific and technological progress into better health outcomes for more people,” said Esther Krofah, Executive Vice President, Milken Institute Health. “By bringing together leaders from different sectors and countries, we can learn from what is working, challenge traditional approaches, and build partnerships that make better health within reach.”

Alongside the Future of Health Summit, the Milken Institute is advancing its ongoing programmatic work by:

• Mobilizing capital for women’s health – The Milken Institute Women’s Health Network announced the inaugural 2027 cohort of the Elevate Investment Initiative with a goal to mobilize $1 billion in net-new capital for innovations and services that transform healthcare for women everywhere. The 10 fund managers and companies accepted for the Elevate Investment Initiative Inaugural 2027 Cohort include: Borski Fund, Cross-Border Impact Ventures, Emmeline Ventures, Fern Capital Group, Flagship Pioneering, Foreground Capital, How Women Invest, Meridian Health Ventures, Pillar VC, and Thea Capital.
• Advancing nutrition and public health systems – Feeding Change, the Milken Institute’s food systems portfolio, is releasing a report at the Summit called Aligning Criteria for Nourishing Food Across SNAP and Medicare Advantage, which proposes a common framework of eligibility criteria for nourishing food and beverages across two major federal food and health benefit programs. Milken Institute Public Health is debuting two new reports that show how community-based care is closing gaps the traditional system can’t reach: Beyond the Prescription: Community Pharmacy’s Role in Comprehensive GLP-1 Care, on how pharmacists can better support long-term cardiometabolic health outcomes; and Leveraging Community Health Workers and Pharmacists to Drive Rural Health, on the ways states are maximizing trusted community providers within the Rural Health Transformation Program.
• Shaping the future of US biomedical research and innovation – Building on its recommendations in The Future of US Biomedical Research and Innovation, FasterCures is pleased to welcome two new members to its Advisory Board: Robert Califf, 22nd and 25th Commissioner, FDA, and Karen Knudsen, MBA, PhD, CEO, Parker Institute, bringing additional expertise and perspectives to guide FasterCures’ work in shaping the future of biomedical innovation.

The Milken Institute is publishing new research that elevates critical components of health, including:

• Advancing Health Equity in Cancer Care in the Asia Pacific and Middle East
• Aligning Criteria for Nourishing Food Across SNAP and Medicare Advantage
• Beyond the Prescription: Community Pharmacy's Role in Comprehensive GLP-1 Care
• Financing Cancer Discovery Research: Models to Accelerate Breakthroughs
• Leveraging Community Health Workers and Pharmacists to Drive Rural Health
• A Life-Course Framework for Women’s Cancer Care: Closing Gaps in Access
• Menopause and Brain Health: What Women Need to Know
• A Patient-Centered Value Proposition for Research Participation and Data Sharing
• Redefining the Next Generation of Work: Employer Investments That Build Resilience
• Sustainable Business Models for Community-Serving Organizations in Research

The Summit’s program covers some of health care’s most urgent questions, with sessions including:

• Engineering the Next Era of Human Health
• Clinical AI: The Future of Care Delivery
• States of Health: Innovation Beyond Washington DC
• Can the Future of Health Be Affordable?
• Disrupting Dementia: Overcoming System-Level Hurdles from Diagnosis to Care
• From Discovery to Delivery: The Next Frontier in Cancer Innovation
• Hungry for Change: Reimagining Food Security
• Meeting Women Where They Are: The Future of Prevention, Wellness and Care, and much more.

The Milken Institute is live streaming the Future of Health Summit's public sessions to expand access to the event. Explore the conference program and tune in to the livestream.

For updates on the event, follow the Milken Institute on BlueSky, LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and Facebook using #MIHealthSummit.

Future of Health Summit 2026 At-a-Glance:

• What: The Milken Institute Future of Health Summit is an annual gathering of health care CEOs, policymakers, health systems, providers, payers, patient advocates, technology companies, and investors convened to advance solutions to the most pressing challenges in health.
• Dates: November 11–13, 2026
• Location: The Potomac Hotel, Washington, DC
• Format: Multi-day summit with more than 60 sessions spanning health policy, AI in health care, cancer and dementia research, women's health, healthy aging, and food security
• Theme: “Better Health Within Reach”
• Website: https://milkeninstitute.org/events/future-health-summit-2026
• Hashtag: #MIHealthSummit

About the Milken Institute

The Milken Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank focused on accelerating measurable progress on the path to a meaningful life. With a focus on financial, physical, mental, and environmental health, we bring together the best ideas and innovative resourcing to develop blueprints for tackling some of our most critical global issues through the lens of what’s pressing now and what’s coming next. For more information, visit www.milkeninstitute.org.