ViVE 2026: Some vibes worth watching

Los Angeles - The ViVE conference is bringing thousands of healthcare leaders to southern California.

The digital health conference kicks off today and runs through Wednesday at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The event is co-produced by HLTH, which also runs the annual HLTH conference in the fall, and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME).

About 8,000 healthcare leaders are expected to be in attendance, says Rich Scarfo, president of HLTH.

The conference focuses on hospitals, health systems, payers, and policymakers.

In an interview ahead of the conference, Scarfo told Chief Healthcare Executive® that the purpose of VIVE is to bring people together to tackle serious problems in the industry.

“I think ViVE has always been where strategy and execution come together, and we are in a chaotic environment,” Scarfo says. “So the event offering a grounding atmosphere is really more important than ever. I think at ViVE, we hope that it reflects the reality that healthcare leaders are living in, and not really the version that we wish we were in, right? We’ve got to ground it in reality.”

As ViVE gets underway, I’m hoping to get a sense of the vibe from healthcare leaders in a number of areas. Here are a few things I’m curious about.

The AI conversation

Of course, AI will be an enormous topic at ViVE, with space roughly doubling in size compared to last year’s event.

So most of those in attendance will be talking about AI, but I’m curious what they’ll be discussing. The AI conversations have been more nuanced at the last couple of conferences I attended, and healthcare leaders are increasingly anxious to get a return on those investments.

More healthcare executives are investing in agentic AI, and most plan to spend more in the next couple of years, according to a Deloitte report issued this month. But some are adopting more aggressively than others.

Many health systems are pouring more money in AI to handle administrative functions and reduce the workload on staff. I’m hoping to get more insights on how health systems are expanding AI’s use in patient care.

How hospitals are planning

Many hospitals are facing some stiff financial challenges, including the expiration of Affordable Care Act tax credits.

Health systems are also bracing for cuts in Medicaid after the passage of the HR 1 tax package last year.

Health systems continue to deal with higher costs, especially for drugs and other supplies. How are they managing those costs?

Gauging the mood

This is related to the previous point, but I’m anxious to see the mood of healthcare leaders.

At the HLTH conference last fall, a number of executives I spoke with said the event seemed quieter than in the past couple of years. Plenty of people enjoyed themselves, but the leaders in attendance were a little less light-hearted than in the past.

It’s not easy to quantify, but it’ll be interesting to see if optimism or concern is more prevalent.

What nurses have to say

There’s a number of interesting panel discussions involving nurses, and I’m planning on hitting at least a few of them and talking to some nursing leaders.

Since nurses make up the biggest part of the healthcare workforce, I always want to hear what they have to say about technology, the workplace, well-being and anything else they’re willing to talk about.

Virtual care

I’ll be interested to find out more about the use of telehealth. Virtual care scored a big win when Congress and President Trump signed off on a two-year extension of waivers for telehealth programs and a five-year extension for hospital-at-home programs.

The federal government has launched the Rural Health Transformation Program, and many of the applications focused on telehealth to expand access to care.

Chief Healthcare Executive® will be reporting from the ViVE conference. Look for our coverage.