Guide to Healthcare Leadership Conferences (2026)

Healthcare leadership is a team effort in every sense of the term. Today’s healthcare systems require the intersection of IT, policy, finance, and public health. Bringing it all together involves networking, collaboration, and a holistic view of the healthcare space. No one is a master of each component within this space, and that’s why they turn to conferences to build their understanding of the wider landscape.

Healthcare leadership conferences are nodes of knowledge that act as temporary centers of excellence. It’s here that industry leaders get together to discuss their challenges, opportunities, and research on the topics that matter most. Some may focus specifically on a particular niche, such as healthcare marketing or healthcare IT, while others may act as an omnibus wherein attendees can customize their tracks.

And there’s plenty of room for out-of-the-box thinking, too, with some conferences bringing speakers from roles as diverse as astronaut, artist, or singer to help explore the future of healthcare.

Whether you’re a veteran healthcare leader or someone just getting their start, healthcare leadership conferences are likely to be an important fixture of your career progression. Below, we’ve collected the top ten conferences in the United States for healthcare leadership in 2026.

Rural healthcare leadership comes with its challenges and opportunities, which are the focus of the American Hospital Association’s 39th annual Rural Healthcare Leadership Conference. Designed for rural healthcare administrators at all levels, the conference focuses on these critical focus areas, such as governance excellence, elevating health equity, financial and operational excellence, patient centricity through digital transformation, improving behavioral health, igniting innovation, building a more flexible and sustainable workforce, and transforming care delivery and payment.

This year’s keynote speakers include a director of health policy & analytics at the American Hospital Association, the vice president of clinical affairs and workforce at the American Hospital Association, the president of Orlikoff & Associates, Inc., and the director of payment policy at the American Hospital Association. Areas of discussion cover topics such as AI to enhance clinical workflows in the rural hospital setting, integrating environmental factors into rural population health strategies, rural health care in crisis, advancing innovation in rural health, building rural readiness for emergencies and disruptions, and the rural cybersecurity triple threat: AI, attacks, and cost pressures.

Learning objectives include exploring new models of care, exploring disaster preparedness, elevating equity and eliminating disparities in treatment, access, and outcomes, advancing economic development, and population and community health in rural areas, developing strategies for a more flexible and sustainable rural healthcare workforce, and promoting the adoption of innovative approaches for improving quality, patient safety, and performance in rural healthcare.

• Location: JW Marriott, San Antonio, TX
• Date: February 8-11, 2026
• Focus: Rural healthcare leadership
• Sponsor: AHA
• Cost: AHA organizational member ($750 to $800); non-member ($850 to $900); academic, government, nonprofit, and associations ($850 to $900)

The National Health Council’s Annual Health Leadership Conference is an opportunity for attendees to network with other leaders from the nation’s top patient groups and related nonprofits and learn about best practices for nonprofit health organizations and emerging issues in health care policy.

Attendees are invited to explore the evolution of leadership in response to rapid changes in the healthcare ecosystem, shifts in the innovation, policy, and advocacy landscape, developments in crisis management, and advancements in technology.

• Location: Hyatt Centric Las Olas, Fort Lauderdale, FL
• Date: February 10-12, 2026
• Focus: Patient health
• Sponsor: National Health Council
• Cost: Contact organization for details

Developed by HLTH and CHIME, ViVE 2026 is a health information technology event focused on the business of healthcare systems. ViVE merges the digital marketplace of HLTH and the leadership of CHIME to create a technology event that brings together senior digital health leaders & buyers, C-suite executives, health startups & investors, and solution providers to advance healthcare. This event will have more than 9,000 participants, 800+ sponsors, and more than 300 speakers.

Attendees will have the opportunity to learn from the innovative business leaders in the community that is transforming healthcare and technology. Focus areas include AI, cybersecurity, diagnostics, interoperability, and nurses.

• Location: Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA
• Date: February 22-26, 2026
• Focus: Digital healthcare
• Sponsor: CHIME and HLTH
• Cost (Estimated): General admission ($2,395); Provider connect (free); Payer connect (free); Government ($1,500); Media (free); Start-ups ($1,500)

The ELC (Executive Leadership Conference) is a 2.5-day event that will help attendees redefine how they approach leadership at their organization. Their unique blend of sessions challenges attendees to refine their healthcare leadership competencies, enhance their communication skills, explore care model design, improve PA and NP revenue generation for their organization, and much more.

Both NPs and PAs are invited to attend this Executive Leadership Conference, which is specifically designed for PAs and NPs who are administrative or clinical leaders or those who are considering transitioning into healthcare leadership.

• Location: Clearwater Beach, FL
• Date: February 23-25, 2026
• Focus: Healthcare leadership and administration
• Sponsor: American Academy of Physician Associates
• Cost: AAPA Member ($1,049); non-member ($1,349)

The American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) Congress on Healthcare Leadership brings together over 7,000 people from the healthcare leadership community.

This 2026 edition is a premier networking and educational event for healthcare executives, providing them with an opportunity to come together and reimagine healthcare. Attendees will be able to connect with their colleagues, discover new insights from innovative thought leaders, and access resources that will empower them to lead in the field.

Learners at this in-person event will earn up to 18 ACHE Face-to-Face Education credits. This conference remains a pilgrimage for healthcare leaders at all points of their careers.

This year’s featured faculty include the president of Northwell Health, the executive director of continuum operations at Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, the executive vice president of hospital operations at Ovation Healthcare, the director of brain health at McKinsey Health Institute, and the managing director of healthcare leadership at Brigham Young University.

Early bird registration ends on December 15, 2025. Advance registration ends on January 26, 2026, and on-site rates apply after this date.

• Location: Houston, TX
• Date: March 2-4, 2026
• Focus: Customizable
• Sponsor: ACHE
• Cost: Executive flex pass (member CEO or FACHE: $2,500, non-member CEO: $2,750); basic registration (member: $1,800, non-member: $1,975); 1-day pass (member: $1,300, non-member: $1,500); student associate ($500); HEN program directors ($825)

This gathering is an interactive and dynamic event that will connect the healthcare community to learn, support, and share ideas for positively impacting the experience in healthcare organizations worldwide.

Elevate PX is designed for practitioners and leaders who improve the patient experience with roles in service excellence, executive leadership, patient experience or satisfaction, physician or nurse leadership, quality or safety operations, and patient and family advisors.

Attendees at this event will be experiencing live networking activities and educational sessions, learning from leading experts who tackle issues related to patient experience within healthcare.

• Location: Hilton Anatole, Dallas, TX
• Date: March 30 – April 1, 2026
• Focus: Elevating the human experience in healthcare
• Sponsor: The Beryl Institute
• Cost: In-person speaker fee ($700); in-person member ($1,450, changes to $1,500 after February 4, 2026); in-person non-member ($1,600, changes to $1,650 after February 4, 2026); virtual member ($625, changes to $650 after February 4, 2026); virtual non-member ($725, changes to $750 after February 4, 2026)

The 2026 HCSRN annual conference will take place at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel in Dallas, Texas, on April 21-23, 2026. This conference is a preeminent gathering for researchers based in real-world healthcare systems and numerous collaborators in academic health systems, patient-partner communities, and funding agencies. The conference offers a diverse slate of content, showcasing relevant, rigorous research on important conditions affecting millions of patients. This year’s theme is “Scaling Learning Health Systems: Data-Driven Pathways to Better Outcomes”.

The event focuses on topics such as mental health and addiction medicine, maternal and child health, infectious disease, implementation/health delivery science, health equity, chronic illness, aging, population health, social determinants of health, stakeholder engagement, and virtual data warehouse.

Registration rates differ by date. Early-bird registration is from September 16, 20245, through March 2, 2026. Standard registration is from March 3 – 30, 2026. Late registration is March 31, 2026, through onsite in Dallas.

• Location: Sheraton Dallas Hotel, Dallas, TX
• Date: April 21-23, 2026
• Focus: Customizable
• Sponsor: HCSRN
• Cost, Full Conference Fees: Member/government agency employee (early: $695, standard: $795, and late: $895); non-member (early: $805, standard: $905, and late: $995); student ($370); patient/patient partner ($220)
• Cost, One-Day Conference Fees: Non-students ($420); students ($275)

Hosted by Academy Health, an advocate of evidence-based healthcare policy, the Annual Research Meeting (ARM) is the gathering place for several individuals leading the charge to transform healthcare and delivery systems in a rapidly changing landscape. This meeting convenes the foremost experts at the intersection of healthcare, policy, and health who are interested in sharing the latest HSR evidence and methods. This meeting will explore the overarching theme “Rigor and Relevance Driving Action.”

Organized around 14 subtopics, areas of discussion include aging, end-of-life, and complex conditions; child and family health; digital health, data, and analytics; dissemination, implementation, and impact; global health and systems research; health equity and disparities; healthcare access, payment, and coverage; healthcare system design and transformation; mental health and substance use; methods and measurement science; and patient-centered care and engagement, among others.

• Location: Seattle Convention Center, Seattle, WA
• Date: May 30 – June 2, 2026
• Focus: Health services research
• Sponsor: Academy Health
• Cost: Registration rates are not available as of December 2025

The American Hospital Association’s Leadership Summit brings together healthcare executives, experts, and clinicians in this field who will present innovative approaches and transformational strategies to achieve financial stability while also delivering greater value through creative partnerships, redefined delivery models, and operational excellence. Special emphasis will be paid to the practices and strategies that enable leaders to respond successfully and remain resilient in periods of sustained crisis.

Topics may include transforming care delivery and payment; building a more flexible and sustainable workforce; improving behavioral health, including mental illness and substance use disorder; igniting innovation; and elevating health equity and eliminating disparities. In addition to these tracks, the conference seeks case studies, success stories, and other proposed sessions on issues such as governance excellence, health equity, and behavioral health.

• Location: Denver, CO
• Date: July 12-14, 2026
• Focus: Redesigning Care Delivery and Operating Models for the Future
• Sponsor: American Hospital Association
• Cost: Contact organization for details

The ICHSM 2026 aims to bring together outstanding researchers, students, and scholars to exchange and share their research results and experiences about all aspects of health management and medical informatics. The event will discuss the most recent trends, innovations, concerns, practical challenges encountered, and the various solutions in the field of health management and medical informatics.

This event cordially welcomes all experts of academia, government, and industry from all around the world to contribute to and help shape this conference through submissions of their research papers, posters, and abstracts.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to healthcare information management, health tourism applications, health policy and practice, big data for healthcare practices, survival analysis and health hazards, collaboration technologies for healthcare, personalized health promotion, epidemiological modeling, psychiatric and mental health nursing, health informatics education, anxiety and sleep disorders, and rehabilitation nursing, among others.

Early bird registration ends on May 30, 2026.

• Location: Isparta, Turkey
• Date: September 24-26, 2026
• Focus: The theme of this year’s conference is “Inspiring a New Spirit: Global Collaboration for Sustainable Health”.
• Sponsor: CBEES
• Cost: Full paper/student (before May 30: $520; after May 30: $540); Full paper/regular (before May 30: $540; after May 30: $560); full paper from Süleyman Demirel University ($380); full paper from Türkiye ($400); additional paper ($380); additional page ($50); student delegate ($310 to $330); regular delegate ($330 to $350)