Major topics and trends discussed at HBI 2024
HBI’s annual conference took place last week. Almost 600 attendees — comprising CXOs of healthcare providers, investors, suppliers and advisors — travelled from 40 different countries to London for the event. Over the course of three days of roundtables, workshops and panel discussions, they explored the big issues the sector faces, and the opportunities available to the private sector in helping to solve them.
A few key themes stood out from the discussions.
On the M&A front, there was a sense of deja vu as we heard predictions that deal activity will likely begin to return in the second half of the year.
However, speakers did offer some good reasons why this year it may actually happen.
Hedley Goldberg, Managing Director at multinational investment bank Rothschild, described how the macroeconomic situation has improved significantly since last year, with inflation almost back to normal and interest rates beginning to come down. Also, multiples have come down a bit, at least for lower-growth assets.
Another important factor is that regulatory uncertainty in Germany, Europe’s biggest healthcare market, has been mostly resolved, with Health Minister Karl Lauterbach’s desire to ban private investors acquiring outpatient facilities now “off the table”.
Across Europe, certain sub sectors stood out as being “hot” on the M&A front.
Ophthalmology, particularly in the UK, is seeing a lot of activity. Dentistry still has a lot of opportunities. Veterinary and aesthetics, both of which got their own session for the first time at HBI, are seeing a lot of interest from investors looking to take advantage of rapidly growing demand and huge consolidation opportunities.
On the innovation front, the AI and data revolution came up in some form or another in almost every single session.
Compared to last year’s discussions, there was a bit of a shift in tone and focus in the way it was discussed. Last year the topic seemed to be discussed mostly in the future tense, as something with significant unrealised potential for the coming years.
This year’s conversations centred more around how companies are going about implementing their data and AI strategies, and the concurrent challenges and pitfalls they are facing in doing so. It seems that almost every healthcare company now has some kind of strategy on how to take advantage of developments in AI and patient data management.
Discussions on workforce shortages also appeared to be more focused on the nitty-gritty details of implementing solutions than previous years. At the ‘The War for Talent: Recruitment, Retention, and Culture’ panellists shared the strategies they are employing to hire and retain talent.
Other big, and familiar, topics featured, including the drive towards sustainability and ESG, measuring the social impact of healthcare investments, and the move to more consumer-centric hybrid/digi-physical — or, to borrow the portmanteau used by one of our speakers, Dr. Sunita Maheshwari of Teleradiology Solutions, ‘phygital’ — care.
Those who attended HBI 2024 are able to view recordings of all conference sessions via the Swapcard app or website.
We would welcome your thoughts on this story. Email your views to Martin De Benito Gellner or call 0207 183 3779.
