Join host Megan Antonelli as she sits down with Melissa Medina, Co-Founder & CEO of eMerge Americas, to discuss the landmark partnership that's reshaping healthcare innovation. From transforming Miami into a global tech hub to launching the most dynamic health platform in the Americas, Melissa shares insights on cross-sector collaboration, venture capital trends, and why Florida is becoming the epicenter for breakthrough healthcare solutions. Discover how eMerge HEALTH 2026 will unite payers, providers, policymakers, and innovators to drive real-world impact across AI, precision health, and health equity initiatives.
Melissa Medina, Co-Founder and CEO, eMerge Americas
Megan Antonelli, Founder & CEO, HealthIMPACT
0:01 Welcome to Digital Health Talks. Each week we meet with healthcare leaders making an immeasurable difference in equity, access, and quality. Hear about what tech is worth investing in and what isn't as we focus on the innovations that deliver. Join Megan Antonelli, Janae Sharp, and Shahid Shaw for a weekly no BS deep dive on what's really making an impact in healthcare.
0:28 Megan Antonelli: Hello everybody. This is Megan Antonelli with Digital Health Talks, where we explore how technology is fixing healthcare.
0:35 Today, I'm excited to share a conversation that's particularly meaningful to me.
0:39 We are joined by Melissa Medina, co-founder and CEO of eMerge Americas, the visionary leader who transformed Miami into a global tech hub, attracting over 20,000 attendees from 50+ countries annually.
0:55 As someone who's just stepped into the role of the director of eMerge Health through our partnership, I wanted to invite Melissa on the show to share about what this collaboration means for us and for healthcare innovation.
1:08 Mel brings a unique perspective.
1:10 She's not just building conferences, she's curating ecosystems where breakthrough solutions are born.
1:16 With Florida attracting $4.13 billion in health startup venture capital in 2024 alone, there's never been a more critical time to understand how cross-sector innovation can accelerate the transformation of our healthcare system that it desperately needs.
1:35 Hi, Mel, welcome to Digital Health Talks.
1:38 Melissa Medina: Hi, Megan, thank you so much for having me.
1:40 I'm so excited to be here.
1:41 Megan Antonelli: Yeah, I'm so excited.
1:43 You know, our press release went out this week to announce the partnership, so I thought, what a great timing.
1:50 It is official.
1:51 And, you know, we have a female founder spotlight.
1:55 So it seemed like perfect timing to interview you as the founder of eMerge Americas.
2:02 So tell us, tell our audience a little bit about your founder's story and how you came to found the event.
2:09 Melissa Medina: Awesome, thanks again for the opportunity and thanks for being such a great partner.
2:14 I think this is only gonna elevate our efforts even more and super proud to have you as part of the team, but I guess, you know, taking a step back and giving a short version of my founder story, it really stemmed from actually a place of two emotions, which was passion and frustration and by that I mean.
2:38 I worked in a technology company that was founded by my father here in Miami.
2:43 It was a global company that was focused on IT infrastructure, so we built data centers all over the world and one of the first to get into cloud computing, and there were a lot of pain points being headquartered in Miami and that was hiring talent.
2:59 Evangelizing Miami as a tech hub, traveling around the world, and people asking why, why is this high tech innovative company headquartered in Miami is always why Miami, why Miami, why Miami?
3:11 And then the passion element is that I'm born and raised here.
3:17 I'm also a first generation American.
3:19 My parents are Cuban immigrants and Miami's home and this is where, you know, I built my family and always wanted to kind of give back to a community that's been so good to us.
3:30 So the company I worked at with my father is named Terremark Worldwide, the company sold, which was a really exciting time and exciting and proud of my father for that.
3:43 As soon as the company sold.
3:45 Kind of went through the exercise of what were the pain points and challenges, what were the frustrations, and you know again how much we love this community and what was born out of that was well why don't we try to do something to help foster and spark and help create a robust tech ecosystem here in South Florida that was circa 2012.
4:06 And that's where the idea essentially of eMerge was born because we thought, well, we've attended conferences all over the world kind of selling our products and services so there was none at the time anywhere near Miami and truthfully, you know, my father kind of led the vision and I thought this is such a bold crazy idea but I'm all about it, so then we co-founded.
4:30 eMerge Americas together and decided, well, we're going to bring together entrepreneurs, investors, global tech execs, government, academia.
4:39 All together here in Miami Beach at the Miami Beach Convention Center we launched in 2014 and now 11 years later, you know, I'd say we're much more than a conference and a convening and we can get into that and those details a little later but again kind of going back to our roots it really stemmed from what we felt was a void in the market and something that we felt would be a tremendous opportunity for our community.
5:05 Megan Antonelli: Yeah. Such a great story.
5:07 And, and really, you know, I think so much, you know, there's just so much meaning behind when you can bring together people, you know, for multi-purposes, right?
5:16 You know, I mean, my company, you know, coming from the events background, but always being in healthcare, you know, the reason I called it Purpose Events was because I wanted the convening to be meaningful, right?
5:29 And I wanted there to be meaningful outcomes that it wasn't just, you know, it isn't just a party.
5:35 We can have fun, and we can learn a lot, but what happens in the in-between is so important.
5:41 And I think one of the things that really struck me about eMerge was that, you know, the sectors that you bring together, so the verticals.
5:52 So, you know, right now, as we go into 2026, you know, AI, finance, national security, and healthcare.
6:00 And, you know, and those are the four.
6:02 Tell me a little bit about how they became the four.
6:08 But, you know, and I could say a lot about my opinion of the importance of that, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.
6:16 Melissa Medina: Yeah, no, that's a great question.
6:18 So when we started the conference, of course it was very much tech enabled companies, and there has always been a technology thread, innovation thread, knowledge-based thread, but it was much more generalistic and across just many, many, many different industries, and one of the things we started doing as a team was tracking the data of venture activity throughout our state.
6:42 And what we were seeing is that the top industries essentially where the most venture dollars were going were in finance, were in healthcare, and then little by little national security, and then now, of course, deep tech or AI and quantum.
6:58 And in following those trends and tracking those trends and publishing the data over the years, we started feeling that as an organization, it would make a lot of sense for us to really kind of tailor the vision and focus on what we consider sort of the four fastest growing sectors in our region.
7:17 And also thread that into our year round programming and our accelerator program so we also have an accelerator program where we help startups scale, connect with mentors, connect with investors throughout the year, and we also started hyperfocusing our accelerator on those four verticals as well, kind of connecting the dots between everything and it's been, I think something very positive for our organization.
7:45 To be focused on those sectors and we're also from what we find as far as the conference, one of the only conferences that has this sort of cross-sector focus.
7:56 And I think there's a lot of advantages for that specifically.
8:00 Megan Antonelli: Yeah, absolutely.
8:02 Tell me a little bit about, you know, why those areas in Miami, I guess.
8:08 You know, I mean, and I think, and I guess, and a little bit about what you've seen.
8:12 I mean, over those 14 years in Miami and the changes, cause I have to imagine it's been pretty dramatic, obviously, from a, you know. The country has changed pretty dramatically over 14 years.
8:24 But Miami itself and the kind of that, as now we're seeing, it really emerged as, you know, a tech hub.
8:34 How has that evolved?
8:39 Melissa Medina: Definitely evolved a lot.
8:39 I would say this has been very much, you know, in the early days, 12 years ago, very much a grassroots effort.
8:46 And what's happened over the last, you know, 5 to 6 years, definitely post COVID, there was sort of a global lens that opened up, I think not only in South Florida but throughout our entire state, and I think that sort of really propelled investment, tech talent, migration, interest, media attention.
9:07 And that provided, I think, a new sort of global landscape for our ecosystem, and that definitely was one of the major drivers in how we were looking at the growth of our organization and then specifically with the verticals I mean sort of what I mentioned before in tracking the data, following the venture dollars and making sure that we were kind of aligned with quote unquote emerging technologies and wanted to be very kind of thoughtful on how we were growing each of these verticals, which is why sort of the announcement this week with our partnership.
9:47 It's super important to us, you know, healthcare, I think, is an industry that is, you know, has been for a long time.
9:57 Sort of disrupted by tech and innovation, but now I think you're just seeing a lot more investment into health tech into biotech.
10:06 I mean we're seeing it across our state and we felt that, you know, we need to not only double down but sort of triple down on those efforts, even though I think important to know, you know, healthcare has always been a consistent pillar within eMerge, you know, within the content.
10:23 Within what we're focusing on, but it has grown, you know, substantially into now a year-round effort fully aligned, you know, with you and Health Impact Live.
10:37 I think now that helps us create a more sort of dedicated and continuous ecosystem for health innovation across our region.
10:46 Megan Antonelli: Yeah, absolutely.
10:47 I mean, I know when we first launched Health Impact, you know, we started in New York and Chicago, and then Miami, and then we took it out west to Texas and to Houston and to Los Angeles.
11:03 And so it was always interesting.
11:06 You know, with healthcare in that, and we were, you know, at the time pretty hospital focused and that healthcare is so local in some ways.
11:17 But I think that as, you know, and it's maybe, you know, the sort of the changing environment of how people live, where people live, that has happened since the pandemic.
11:27 That I think some of the differences and some of the strategies around hospitals are more universal, right?
11:33 I mean, there's still that very much, yeah, so much that distinction between, you know, rural and urban, of course.
11:43 But then, you know, many hospitals wanting to have this, you know, the same level of innovation and the same level of adoption across that.
11:52 In Miami, of course, being an incredibly diverse and robust, you know, global city, to be able to, you know, attract that.
12:01 Whereas, you know, some and also, at the time, and still, although I think, you know, Florida gets a bit of a bad rap to be, you know, where everybody goes to retire, I think it's less so now.
12:13 You know, everybody's moving there, right?
12:14 Melissa Medina: But when we went there, it was really the narrative has definitely changed, but you're right.
12:20 I mean, that was definitely the feeling of, you know, that's what happens when you go to Florida.
12:25 You go to either vacation or retire and thankfully, that narrative has dramatically shifted and you know, in terms of healthcare, I agree with you 100%, Megan.
12:37 I mean Miami, I think is really uniquely positioned right now, as like a global gateway, but specifically, you know, a city and really a state that's rapidly expanding in life sciences and clinical research in health tech, so we, you know, believe the opportunity is now.
12:57 Megan Antonelli: Yeah. Now it's, now you got to protect your health and your wealth, right?
13:02 Lots of reasons to go to Florida.
13:07 And, you know, you've had some incredible partners with eMerge and, you know, amazing speakers over the years, but UHealth and Jackson.
13:15 Being partners, tell us a little bit about, you know, that, you know, having that relationship with those health systems there and what that's meant for the program.
13:24 Melissa Medina: Yeah, it's really meant a lot to us and it propelled us over 2 years ago now to kind of transition from think of it as a health track as I mentioned, we've always had content and speakers and thought leaders conversations around the intersection between healthcare and technology, but we never really had a full pavilion and area and sort of this health.
13:48 Tech innovation hub that we were able to launch and create together in partnership with UHealth and Jackson and that was a sort of coming to them and their leadership and saying you know we've been tracking this we're seeing a massive opportunity here, you know, do you want to partner with us in taking this to the next level and thankfully they did and then you know along with them we've had a lot of supporting.
14:14 Healthcare systems that have also helped us, you know, Baptist, Nicklaus Children's Hospital, Orlando Health, so we've had, you know, a lot of partners and stakeholders that believe in it as well, and I think that foundation is what is now propelling us to this next level, you know, with you and, you know, your extended network and now bringing that to life.
14:41 You know, it's exciting to see how this is evolving.
14:46 Megan Antonelli: Yeah. No, absolutely.
14:48 It is, it's so exciting.
14:49 And, you know, and it's been a while since we've been back in Florida.
14:53 I think the last time we were at, we were actually at the innovation center at Orlando Health, but we have, we do have such great, there, you know, there's just such great health systems there, you know, that are doing fabulous things, you know, in robotics and AI implementation.
15:09 So excited to go there and to bring our community from across the country there.
15:16 You know, and I think one of the things, you know, going back to one of the first events I ever launched in healthcare, where we tried and did bring together payers and providers and policymakers and the pharma and the medtech.
15:28 So that multi-stakeholder piece, which I love about eMerge because we've got the multi, you know, the multi-vertical, and then that opportunity to bring in the stakeholders, which I think in healthcare has become, you know, it was important 20 years ago, and it is so important now, as the, you know, as the patient is the center and driving their own health, you know, through the apps and managing, you know, their wellness through wearables and then ultimately.
16:01 Yeah, through technology, that it really is bringing, you know, it converges the need or creates the need for all of those, you know, stakeholders to come together.
16:10 And in some cases, it's, you know, it's hard because they have different, you know, different objectives, but bringing them together in a platform like that in Miami, I think, is really exciting and we're super excited to be a part of it, in, you know, from your perspective, because the event has always been multi-stakeholder, and obviously the finance side of that too, the investors, the startups, the innovators who get to kind of see what pharma is looking for, what medtech is looking for, what payers need, what hospitals need.
16:45 What are some of, you know, are there some moments, some things that you've seen, you know, on the stage or, you know, on the floor or, you know, even throughout the years, you know, that kind of stick in your head as, as, you know, great things that have come out of eMerge.
17:02 Melissa Medina: Well, I think, you know, if we're talking about the uniqueness and I think the differentiator for eMerge that it is cross industry, I think what we've seen year after year and coming off the heels of our last show, you know, this year in 2025, we had specifically, you know, sticking to like the healthcare sector, we had, you know, world renowned.
17:24 Doctors and researchers that were there specifically for our health tech innovation efforts, but they came up to us and said, you know, it's so amazing to be here listening to, you know, the latest in like AI prognosis and diagnostics here on this stage, but then I'm able to cross over and like talk to all these startups and innovators and listen to, you know what's the latest in quantum and like frontier technologies over on another stage and find out, you know what's the, you know, how can we work now with national security directors because we have a whole stage and area dedicated to national security and defense tech which there's a massive layer there of healthcare too and I think in a lot of.
17:47 Specific industry focused events which obviously are completely needed and are great, you don't get that aspect and so I think it's exciting to be able to have, you know, yes, your specific industry events, you know why you're going and who you're gonna meet, but it's also I think for us what we've created is a very unique platform where you can have that but you can also, you know, connect with others in other industries, other fields, and believe it or not, there's just so much.
18:46 What we call accidental collisions that happen because of that, that we hear a lot.
18:50 I think more than anything from the healthcare space that they say it's so great to kind of combine all of those industries together.
18:59 Megan Antonelli: Yeah, I love that.
19:00 I love accidental collisions.
19:02 That's awesome, and, you know, I think.
19:04 You know, and it's true, like in healthcare, we've always said, you know, oh, well, healthcare is different.
19:08 I mean, even going back to, well, you know, Texas, Houston was different from Dallas, was different from Miami, was, you know, and that's, it's going away a little bit.
19:18 And we used to always talk about how healthcare was slower than everyone else, you know, that they were behind in finance and, and, you know, aeronautics and all this stuff that they would be able to adopt technology faster.
19:30 And what we saw during the pandemic is, you know, lo and behold, given the maybe some terrible incentives the worst case scenarios of incentives, technology can get adopted quickly in healthcare, and it did.
19:44 And now it's what do we keep, what do we, you know, how do we, how do we, how do we keep what we have and how do we keep that momentum and that innovation, and so that ability to learn, certainly from AI and deep tech, but also national security and finance, is huge.
20:00 So the potential there for that is amazing.
20:05 So I, you know, I'm so excited to work with the other directors on the team to see how we can, you know, kind of build that and do, you know, purposefully create some collisions, but also enable those accidental, throughout, you know, cause it is, you know, that's where the magic happens, really.
20:27 So, well, thank you.
20:29 You know, we've got a few more minutes.
20:30 We have, I, you know, I could talk to you all day.
20:33 This is awesome, but it's, you know, we always like to, we have a segment called, 5 Good Things in Healthcare.
20:42 And I'd love to hear what you think, you know, in looking at the sort of healthcare universe and things in terms of what are some of the good things that you see happening, as we close out with our last few minutes.
20:57 Melissa Medina: Yeah, I think some of the, you know, most amazing advancements I've seen and sort of been tracking are the advancements between AI and sort of cancer research, diagnostics, prognosis, treatment, and I think we're gonna see a lot more of that in the coming years.
21:20 You know, I've been shown how AI is now providing a treatment plan for let's say a rare type of cancer and it's a treatment that would not typically be given for a cancer of that type.
21:38 I think that type of advancement is just gonna be transformative, and hopefully, early detection, etc.
21:44 All of that.
21:45 And then what I'm obviously very, very excited about, you know, is off the heels of our announcement this week too, and I just, you know, I hope that together, Megan, your team and our team now as one really can create a lot of impact in this space moving forward.
22:03 And I'm super excited about that.
22:06 Megan Antonelli: Oh, me too.
22:07 Yeah, no, I think both of those things are amazing, and I think there is so much potential in that AI intersection and that connection and the fact that there is, you know, the whole vertical I think will be such a valuable area for people in healthcare to explore because we, you know, what we do, it is a siloed, you know, industry and sector where, you know, when you're on the clinical side of things, you'll talk about AI here, we're on the research, you'll talk about the impacts here.
22:36 But the impact when it all comes together is what makes it so much more meaningful, particularly to the patient and to the outcomes.
22:43 And I think our partnership, in addition to all of that can, there's lots of potential, so I can't wait to dig in and really start bringing people on board and watching it all come to life.
23:01 Melissa Medina: Same here, thank you.
23:03 Super excited as well and appreciate this opportunity as well.
23:06 Megan Antonelli: Yeah, thanks so much for joining us, Mel.
23:09 If anyone would like to get in touch with Mel or the eMerge team, you can just reach out to me, but of course you can also find Melissa Medina on LinkedIn as well and thank you to our listeners.
23:23 This is, you know, just the beginning and we welcome your feedback and thoughts on how we can build out, you know, the portfolio and programming.
23:32 And you know, as always, the future of healthcare isn't just about technology, it's about the human connections and the cross-sector collaboration that turn innovation into impact.
23:42 So join us next week and this time, and thanks for listening to Digital Health Talks.
23:48 This is Megan Antonelli signing off.
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