Digital Health Summit 2026: 

AI meets HI: Sparking Innovation 

On November 4 and 5, 2026, more than 200 participants from healthcare, industry, research, startups, investment and politics came together at TranslaTUM in Munich for the Digital Health Summit 2026 under the motto “AI meets HI: Sparking Innovation”. Hosted by Prof. Dr. Dominik Pförringer and organized by the TUM Venture Labs Healthcare, the summit was dedicated to the question of how digital innovation can be translated from pilot projects into everyday clinical practice.

Covering the full range of digital medicine, the summit focused on six key topics: AI in Medicine, Wearables & Telemedicine, Health Data, Brain-Computer Interfaces, Hospital of the Future, and Innovation & Startups. Across welcome addresses, keynotes, six panel discussions and a startup competition, more than 30 speakers brought these topics to the stage.

As host of the summit, Prof. Dr. Dominik Pförringer (TUM Klinikum and TUM Venture Labs Healthcare) welcomed the participants on the first day and set the tone for the two days ahead with the motto “AI meets HI”: artificial intelligence can only unfold its full potential in medicine in combination with human expertise and judgment. On the second day, welcome addresses by Judith Gerlach, Bavarian State Minister of Health, Care and Prevention, and Prof. Dr. Matthias Tschöp (LMU) underlined the importance of digital innovation for healthcare in Bavaria.

Across both days, five keynotes explored the potential of digital transformation in healthcare, from the successful use of AI to the future interface between humans and technology.

Dr. Julia Moosbauer (deepc) opened the keynote series with Making AI Succeed in Healthcare and showed what it takes for AI solutions to create lasting value in clinical routine. She particularly emphasized that AI only gains a foothold when it benefits patients, medical staff and hospitals alike and is developed hand in hand with clinicians.  

In The Obesity Challenge: Scaling a Digital Solution Across Europe’s Fragmented Systems, Dr. Anna Haas (Oviva) made the case that healthcare needs more than small, step-by-step improvements. For her, Oviva’s experience of scaling across different healthcare systems raises questions such as: “How do you prove value inside each system’s rules, not around them?” and “What does it take to get from one market to many?”  

Under the title The Next Interface Is You, Dr. Max Dingler (Future) reflected on how the interaction between humans and technology in medicine is changing. 

Dr. Sebastian Krammer (Avelios) focused on the digital infrastructure of hospitals in Rebuilding the Hospital’s Digital Backbone, an essential prerequisite for further innovation in clinical care. He described data as the foundation of every digital hospital and addressed the challenges of ensuring its quality, designing a suitable IT architecture and putting systems into everyday operation.  

Finally, Dr. Paul Schmiedmayer (Stanford University) added an international perspective with The Future of Digital Medicine. 

The six panel discussions formed the core of the summit’s program. Experts from clinical practice, research, industry and investment addressed the key questions in digital medicine. The discussions covered four main topics.

In the panel AI in Medicine: Panacea or Placebo?, moderated by Dr. Kurt Höller (Siemens), the panelists Prof. Dr. Daniel Rückert (TUM), Luisa Wasilewski (halbzeit.ai), Prof. Dr. Wieland Sommer, MPH (Jacobian) and Dr. Florin-Cristian Ghesu (Siemens Healthineers) assessed where AI already delivers clinical value, where expectations are still ahead of the evidence, and what role human expertise and medical responsibility should play alongside it. Among the points raised were the growing role of automation in clinical workflows and the effort required to turn innovations into approved medical products. 

The panel The Innovation Engine: Unlocking the Value of Health Data built on this discussion. With Dr. Anja Konhäuser (OMMAX) as moderator, Dr. Stefan Biesdorf (Bavarian Health Cloud), Dr. Roman Rittweger (ottonova), Prof. Dr. Ralf Huss (BioM) and Marc Holtorf (Reed Smith) examined why the potential of health data often remains unused despite technological progress, how its value is shared among different stakeholders, and which legal and organizational frameworks are needed to make it usable. Another question raised was whether future competitive advantage in healthcare will depend more on the sheer amount of data or on the ability to translate it into better decisions for patients. 

Many promising digital solutions never make it past the pilot phase. In the panel From Pilot to Practice: Driving Innovation into the Clinic, Dr. Nora Zetsche (Asklepios), Sabrina Häuser (Doctos) and Dr. Sebastian Krammer (Avelios) analyzed the reasons with moderator Dr. Nicolai Heinzelmann (TUM Venture Labs Healthcare) and outlined how hospitals and startups can close this gap. 

The panel Wearables & Telemedicine: Gadget or Game Changer? posed a related question: when does a digital device become an integral part of medical care? Dr. Franziska Hahn (TUM Klinikum), Prof. Dr. Can Dincer (TUM), Dr. Paul Schmiedmayer (Stanford University) and Dr. Agnes Musiol (Pheal) debated the opportunities and limits of wearables and telemedicine under the moderation of Prof. Dr. Björn Eskofier (LMU). 

One of the most forward-looking topics of the summit was introduced by Prof. Dr. Arthur Wagner (TUM Klinikum), who gave an overview of the current state of brain-computer interfaces. In the following panel Mind Meets Machine: Brain-Computer Interfaces in Medicine, he discussed the medical possibilities and ethical questions of this technology with Dr. Max Dingler (Future) and Dr. Dr. Georg Starke (TUM), moderated by Prof. Dr. Dirk Wilhelm (TUM Klinikum). 

Innovation requires investment. In the panel Healthcare Investment: Reset or Recovery?, guided by moderator Luisa Wasilewski (halbzeit.ai), the panelists Dr. Johannes Fischer (Wellington Partners), Matthias Guth (MIG), Sabrina Stöckl (b2venture) and Dr. Oliver Schoppe (UVC) took stock of the current funding market and shed light on what investors expect from digital health startups today. Attention also focused on a funding environment in which investors have become more discerning and increasingly back teams and solutions that can demonstrate both clinical and commercial impact.

A highlight of the first day was the DHS Startup Award. Six startups, pre-selected through a competitive application process, pitched their solutions live in front of an expert jury in the “Best of 6” format, moderated by Dr. Nicolai Heinzelmann (TUM Venture Labs Healthcare). At stake was a Startup Booth & Access Package for DMEA 2027 worth €3,500, generously sponsored by DMEA nova, offering the winner a stage at one of Europe’s leading digital health events.

The following startups presented their ideas:

• coobi health – offers a digital companion app for people recovering from addiction, together with a platform that helps clinics recognize warning signs and intervene early. 

   

• arterioscope – offers an AI-powered cardiac intelligence platform that analyzes ECG and PPG heart signals for clinical trials and wearable devices. 

   

• Sorala – develops intelligent sensor systems that help prevent pressure injuries in care settings. 

   

• Goodly Technologies – develops SeeCure, a mobile VR-based eye diagnostics platform for conditions such  as glaucoma and AMD that brings examinations to care homes, GP practices and rural communities. 

   

• Concipio Fertility – provides a modular operating system for IVF and fertility clinics that supports both clinical teams and their patients. 

   

• Primora Imaging – uses AI-based image computation to make MRI examinations faster and reduce the    need for contrast agents, paving the way for large-scale screenings such as early breast cancer detection. 

Choosing a winner was anything but easy, as all six startups impressed with strong ideas. In the end, the jury, consisting of Dr. Julia Moosbauer (deepc), Luca Frischauf (Stifel), Dr. Florian Hinterwimmer (TUM Klinikum) and Robert Buschauer (Wellington Partners), chose coobi health as the winner of the DHS Startup Award 2026. The jury was particularly convinced by the team setup and the well-crafted go-to-market strategy, which is already showing promising initial traction. Congratulations!

As a special surprise, EIT Health sponsored a second prize at short notice: a ticket to the EIT Health Summit in Madrid. It was awarded to arterioscope. Congratulations!

Overall, the pitches showcased the innovative strength of young companies in healthcare and underlined how important close collaboration with clinics, industry and investors is to bring their solutions to patients.

What truly sets the DHS apart, however, is what happens off the stage. In the breaks between sessions, the discussions continued with undiminished energy, bringing together clinicians, researchers, founders, investors, industry experts and policymakers in conversations that rarely happen in everyday working life. It is precisely this open, interdisciplinary and collaborative exchange that the summit thrives on. On the evening of the first day, the Healthcare Innovation Night offered the perfect setting to deepen these conversations over food and drinks, make new connections and lay the groundwork for future joint projects.

The Digital Health Summit 2026 made clear that technology alone does not drive innovation in healthcare. Progress is achieved where medicine, research, entrepreneurship and investment work together and learn from one another. The two days also highlighted how much Munich and Bavaria have to offer as a location for digital medicine.

• our partners and supporters: IhreApotheken, secunet, Deutsche Ärzte Finanz, Richard Wolf, Reed Smith as well as HTGF, Plug and Play, TWIP, 10xD, TUM, LMU and the Bavarian State Ministry of Health, Care and Prevention

   

• all speakers, panelists and moderators

   

• the six startups: coobi health, arterioscope, Sorala, Goodly Technologies, Concipio Fertility and Primora Imaging

   

• the jury of the DHS Startup Award

   

• DMEA nova and EIT Health for sponsoring the startup prizes

   

• and – of course – all participants!

We look forward to continuing these conversations and to seeing you again in November 2027 for the Digital Health Summit 2027.

A big thank you to our partners and sponsors