Wharton Club Of DC

Healthcare Sessions at the Wharton DC Innovation Summit

Four sessions - reason enough for you to attend the Summit:

• The Future of Healthcare

• Implications of AI in Healthcare

• Healthcare Venture Showcase

• Food as Medicine/Food Safety

Future of Healthcare – General Session

• This session will explore what medicine may look like over the next 25 years as advances in biotechnology, medtech, digital health, data science, and care delivery reshape the healthcare system. 

• Panelists will discuss the movement from episodic, facility-based care toward more predictive, personalized, preventive, and continuous models of care. 

• Topics will include precision medicine, cell and gene therapy, biologics, remote monitoring, hospital-at-home, the future role of physicians, and the evolving relationship among patients, providers, innovators, payers, and health systems.

Implications of AI in Healthcare - Breakout

• This session will examine how artificial intelligence is changing healthcare today and how it may transform clinical practice, research, operations, medical education, and therapeutic development in the years ahead. 
• The discussion will address AI-enabled diagnosis, clinical decision support, drug discovery, patient monitoring, documentation, workflow automation, regulatory oversight, bias, trust, data privacy, and physician accountability. 
• Panelists will focus on both the promise and the risks of AI, with particular attention to how AI can improve outcomes, reduce burden, and expand access while preserving safety, transparency, and the human dimension of medicine.

Healthcare Venture Showcase (breakout)

The Healthcare Track is seeking high-potential startup and early-stage life science ventures developing innovative solutions across three categories:

1. Biotech / Biologics / Cell and Gene Therapy
2. MedTech / Devices / Diagnostics
3. AI-Augmented HealthTech / Digital Health

The Wharton Innovation Summit Healthcare Track invites startup and early-stage life science ventures to apply for the Healthcare Innovation Venture Showcase on October 1, 2026, at Valo Park in Tysons, Virginia.

Applications are due August 31, 2026, and applicants must be registered members of SoPE (www.sopenet.org).

We are seeking innovative companies in three categories: biotech, including biologics and cell and gene therapy; medtech, including devices and diagnostics; and AI-augmented healthtech, including digital health, clinical workflow, care delivery, and data-driven healthcare platforms.

A panel of judges will review applications and non-confidential pitch decks. Two companies from each category will be selected to present during the Healthcare Track before an audience of entrepreneurs, investors, healthcare executives, industry leaders, academic innovators, and strategic partners.

Applicants should submit a completed application and a non-confidential pitch deck of approximately 10–12 slides. Selected companies will be chosen based on the significance of the problem, strength of the solution, evidence and validation, market opportunity, regulatory and commercial strategy, team quality, and fit with the Summit’s innovation-focused audience.

A panel of judges (SoPE Board of Directors) will review submitted applications and non-confidential pitch decks. Two companies from each category will be selected to present during the Healthcare Innovation Venture Showcase.

Selected companies will have the opportunity to present their venture to an audience of entrepreneurs, investors, healthcare leaders, industry executives, academic innovators, and strategic partners.

All applicants are welcome to attend at the Strategic Partner rate. When registering, select “Strategic Partner”, and enter (SoPE) in the Special Instructions.