The energy at this year’s Rock Health Summit felt different. Not just because the venue was packed or the funding charts looked brighter, but because the tone had shifted.
After a decade of chasing growth, valuation, and hype, digital health has entered its accountability era.
If 2023 was the year of AI’s promise and 2024 the year of correction, 2025 is the year of proof. Proof of trust, proof of outcomes, proof of value.
Founders, investors, and health leaders tackled the industry’s hard questions: How to stay profitable and purposeful? How to scale and still serve with empathy?
That’s the tightrope the industry walked at the Rock Health’s annual summit in San Francisco, where AI, equity, and trust took center stage.
Inside the sessions at Rock Health Summit 2025
The summit brought together a powerful mix of key players:
- Startup founders & CEOs from across the digital health landscape.
- Leading investors from top firms like GV, Seae Ventures, and Magnify Ventures.
- Health system leaders from Sutter Health, Stanford Medicine, and the AMA.
- Tech and policy experts from Google, Axios, and the Peterson Health Technology Institute
Ahead of the summit, Rock Health‘s H1 2025 report set the stage: $6.4 Bn in funding for US digital health. This momentum, fueled by bets on AI and mature companies, formed the crucial backdrop for all conversations.
Here are some key takeaways from the sessions:
Reimagining primary care: Trust and access beyond the clinic
The “Care Everywhere” session highlighted that the future of primary care is about building trust and closing access gaps with community-focused models.
Panelists Nelly Ganesan (Rock Health), Erik Cardenas (Zócalo Health), Katie D’Amico (CareQuest Innovation Partners), and Dr. Matthews agreed that equitable care starts where people actually are, not just in clinics.
Three powerful insights stood out:
1. Trust is a metric of success
Care models built on continuity and community relationships create lasting impact. Trust is the foundation of effective care. It’s built through “continuity, comprehensiveness, and presence over time.”
As Dr. Kameron Matthews of Cityblock Health put it,
“Really acknowledging an individual’s experience and working with them closely… that in and of itself is a first step towards earning their trust.”
2. Oral health is a hidden entry point.
Katie D’Amico pointed to a massive, overlooked opportunity. Roughly “27 million people see a dentist but not a physician each year.”
Integrating dental and medical care can help us catch conditions earlier and guide people to the broader treatment they need. An untapped gateway to the health system.
3. Community Health Workers are the bridge.
Erik Cardenas made it clear that Community Health Workers(CHWs) are often the most trusted connection to care, reaching people that clinical teams can’t.
He was direct: “CHWs are what make our model work,” noting they use great training and scripts to gather crucial data on social needs.
Investment and market maturation: The shift to profitability
The “Market Moves” panel, moderated by Megan Zweig of Rock Health and featuring Larry Cohen, Ph.D. (Health2047), Michael Esquivel (Fenwick & West), Jason Robart (Seae Ventures), and Julie Wroblewski (Magnify Ventures), tackled the new financial realities in digital health.
Here are the key shifts they identified:
1. The funding bar has been raised.
The days of easy money are over. Investors now demand the revenue and growth milestones of a Series B for a Series A round. This “up-shift” means only companies with a proven, durable business model need to apply.
2. AI is creating a two-tier system.
True “AI-native” companies, those built from the ground up with AI, are commanding premium valuations. Simply adding AI as a feature is no longer enough. This rush of capital into AI, however, risks starving other vital, clinically-needed sectors of funding.
3. Consolidation is the new path to scale.
With the IPO window narrowed, the exit strategy is now consolidation. There’s a wave of “M&A roll-ups,” where smaller point solutions are being combined into larger platforms to achieve scale.
The question is: Will the market reward sheer size, or will clinical utility and measurable outcomes prove to be the real drivers of value?
To sum it up:
“The market is rewarding not just innovation, but sustainability.”
Accelerating progress in women’s health
The “Leading with Purpose” session, featuring Adrianna Samaniego (Cherryrock Capital), Frederique Dame (GV), Jessica Horwitz, MSN FNP-C (Tia Health), and Adrianne Nickerson (Oula), made a powerful case for redesigning women’s healthcare.
Here are their insights:
1. Close the research gap.
The panel highlighted how women are still often treated using protocols based on research done on men. They identified the lack of research into women-specific conditions as both a massive unmet need and a major opportunity for innovation.
2. Redesign care for the family’s CEO.
As Dame put it, “women are the Chief Medical Officers of their households.” Systems need a redesign to meet them where they are. Through virtual care, flexible hours, and family-centered design, care coordination can become less of a burden.
3. Let patients define “better.”
Proving a care model works can’t rely on clinical data alone. They don’t tell the whole story. “Ask women what ‘better’ means to them,” said Nickerson, “and build from there.”
AI’s new role: From hype to healing
Few topics generated as much buzz as the “AI State of Play” session, featuring Steven Lin (Stanford) and Shweta Maniar (Google), which explored how AI is reshaping care from the system to the patient.
Two key debates stole the spotlight:
1. Protecting the “art” of medicine.
A major concern is that medical students’ reliance on AI tools could “hollow out the very judgment and diagnostic instincts” of the next generation of doctors.
The panel focused on how to preserve the essential human art of medicine in an AI-driven era. And how to balance efficiency with empathy.
2. The rise of the AI-powered patient.
Patients are arriving at clinics already “pre-diagnosed” by chatbots and symptom checkers. The new question for clinicians is how to build trust when your patient’s first consultation was with an algorithm.
This shift means providers must develop new strategies to build trust and effectively guide care procedures.
Rock Health Top 50 in Digital Health: Honouring the changemakers
The summit also celebrated this year’s Rock Health Top 50 in digital health, spotlighting leaders who are redefining what healthcare can be.
The honorees included:
- Icons driving the industry forward: Tom Hale (ŌURA), Sami Inkinen (Virta Health), Sheila Lirio Marcelo (Ohai.ai), and Lee Shapiro (7wireVentures).
- System Disruptors breaking the mold: Zachary Clark (Uber Health), Michelle Davey (Wheel), and Adrianne Nickerson (Oula).
- Equity Advocates championing inclusive care: Anna De Paula Hanika (Uno Health) and Maya Hardigan (Mae).
- And many others!
Parting words
If one message echoed through every session, it was this:
Digital health’s “move fast” era is over. The “prove it” era has begun.
The future will belong to those who can blend AI with empathy, profitability with purpose, and innovation with integrity.
“The talk is over. The resolve is clear. It’s time to execute or exit.”
-By Alkama Sohail and the AHT Team
