4 Key Themes From Day 2 of Cure's X Factor Healthcare Innovation Summit

Building upon discussions from Day 1 around rebuilding trust in science and the need for the United States to maintain its leadership in biotech innovation, Day 2 of The X Factor Summit expanded the conversation. The six panels delved into patient-led clinical trials, patient-centric care, breakthroughs in women’s health, and alliance-building.

Here were the overarching themes:

Technology is getting us closer to a holistic approach.

Throughout his 25 years covering biotech, pharma, and the life sciences, journalist David Ewing Duncan has had to separate truth from hype. As the moderator of the Breakthrough Innovations: Game Changing Trends in Healthcare panel, he said news of “breakthroughs” were often too early for actual application in the clinic. But now, “Mr. Skeptical” sees a tipping point. “I think now we're in a massive age of convergence,” with technologies closer to being ready for prime time. And while in many ways, medicine is still practiced organ by organ and system by system, a change to a holistic approach is more possible than ever.

Mathai Mammen, MD, PhD, chairman and CEO of Parabolas Medicines, agreed, noting that technological tools are no longer peripheral but central to discovery. He noted the combination of human creativity and AI’s computational power as the new model of discovery: “It comes back to a trend of engineers, biologists, physicians, chemists, becoming more conversant with one another's languages . . . That’s allowing those kinds of data right now to take some real leaps forward.”

“Bilinguality” of disciplines makes for a better collaboration.

The concept of “bilinguality”—scientists who straddle multiple disciplines—is becoming a hallmark of modern innovation. “You have physicians that are biologists and biologists that are engineers, and engineers that are chemists… I think this has been tremendously helpful,” said Mammen. It’s a new paradigm where breakthroughs are born from integration, not isolation.

This cultural shift is also shaping education and research culture. Mammen pointed to Harvard and Stanford as models for supporting interdisciplinary scientists, a trend that has helped drive translational success. “If you look at the individuals that are at the forefront of that effort, it's these individuals that often cross domains,” he said.

And the concept of “multilinguality” extends to trial design—the most efficient trials are designed when patients, clinicians, researchers, and sponsors all communicate openly.

Healthcare will become more patient-centered, even patient-led.

Many discussions today highlighted a profound shift in healthcare toward patient-led care, with an emphasis on integrating patient input from the very beginning of clinical development. Janice Chang, CEO of TransCelerate BioPharma, emphasized the inevitability of this approach: “Whether or not we’re ready, it’s happening. Patient engagement absolutely has to be one of your strategic priorities, because they’re the customers we serve.” Alandra Weaver, VP Clinical Quality & Research Innovation for Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, reinforced this, explaining that engaging patients early can prevent wasted resources: “Why go through the clinical development process and have a fully baked clinical trial and then engage patients as an afterthought? That’s wasted time, wasted money, wasted resources. Do it at the beginning. Get that insight early so that the trial can be designed with the patient and the end user in mind.”

Later, on the Breakthroughs in Women’s Health panel, former NBC News correspondent Kristen Dahlgren, who founded the Cancer Vaccine Coalition, underscored the importance of listening to patients: “How many stories have you heard about women going in to say something's wrong and just being dismissed? It's us standing up and talking about it and demanding better. It's medical schools addressing it. It really does start with this conversation about women's health.” Across panels, the consensus was clear: healthcare is moving toward a model that is more personalized, more flexible, and fundamentally guided by the patient.

Women’s health is (finally!) seeing the momentum it deserves.

The women’s health panel underscored that the field is at a pivotal moment, driven by growing recognition of women’s health as both a public-health imperative and a global economic opportunity. Speakers pointed to the persistent gaps in research, access, equity, and investment—alongside a cultural shift toward listening to patients more deeply and moving from “sick care to well care.” All the panelists emphasized that scientific momentum, policy attention, and market forces are finally aligning, creating “early seeds” of a long-overdue transformation.

Against this backdrop, Women’s Health Foundation founder Katy Brodsky Falco talked about the need for a few wins in order for women’s health to truly take off. “If we can see a bunch of big exits of companies in the women's health space, so that investors can really see the potential for investing, it will open up funding opportunities that haven't been there before,” Falco said.