Leaders in healthcare, biotechnology and AI gather at the 2026 World Medical Innovation Forum, convened by Mass General Brigham
Annual forum explored cutting-edge innovations in healthcare, including emerging treatments, artificial intelligence, scientific discovery and the future of patient care
More than 250 leaders and CEOs from healthcare, pharma and biotechnology, medicine, venture capital, government, and technology gathered in Boston on Sept. 22–23 for the 2026 World Medical Innovation Forum (WMIF), hosted by Mass General Brigham in collaboration with Bank of America. The annual forum, which drew more than 2,300 attendees this year, serves as a global platform that brings together executives, researchers, clinicians, investors, policymakers and entrepreneurs to drive translation of scientific discoveries from the laboratory bench to patients’ bedsides.
The theme of this year’s forum was “Innovation at Scale”—a reflection of the significant breadth of new technologies, digital innovations, and scientific breakthroughs across all areas of healthcare discussed at the two-day conference.
"The World Medical Innovation Forum uniquely gathers top leaders from across industry, academia and the investment community to jointly tackle the most pressing challenges in healthcare," said Christopher Coburn, Chief Innovation Officer at Mass General Brigham. "Its goal is to accelerate and scale innovation to help deliver meaningful advances for patients."
First held in 2015, the World Medical Innovation Forum was designed to accelerate the development of solutions that improve health outcomes around the world. Sessions at this year’s forum emphasized several key themes and technological advances discussed by world leaders in their respective fields, including emerging treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, vision loss, and for improving longevity. The role AI can play in filling gaps in clinical care, including in mental health, was also featured this year.
In another highlight at this year’s forum, Mass General Brigham innovators delivered “First Look” rapid-fire presentations on their scientific breakthroughs with commercial potential, before investors or companies have had a chance to act on them. The two winners of this year’s $10,000 prizes were:
- Korkut Uygun, PhD, director of Cell and Organ Resource Core and a professor in the Department of Surgery at Mass General Brigham, who described his novel approach to organ preservation. Instead of the traditional method of transporting organs in a bag of ice, during which they deteriorate and become untransplantable within hours, Uygun’s Mass General Brigham-spin off company, KrioTransplant, has developed a technique of precision freezing that can preserve an organ for weeks to months. In 2025, his team used this method to transplant a pig kidney that had been frozen for 10 days. This year, they performed the first successful frozen pig organ transatlantic transfer. The technology promises to establish a cryo supply chain of human and xeno-organs, so that the organs can be transplanted to patients in need, whenever or wherever they may be.
- Lloyd Bod, PhD, an investigator in the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute, who described the development of cytagonists, a first-of-its-kind therapeutic platform designed to improve outcomes for patients with pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest and most treatment-resistant cancers. Dr. Bod and his team discovered that roughly half of pancreatic cancer patients with poorer outcomes produce harmful antibodies that neutralize interferon-gamma, a critical immune molecule that helps the body fight cancer. Cytagonists act as decoys, binding to these harmful antibodies and restoring the body's natural immune response. In preclinical studies, their lead candidate successfully restored interferon-gamma activity and slowed cancer cell growth. Beyond pancreatic cancer, the platform could be adapted to treat other cancers and autoimmune, inflammatory, and infectious diseases, potentially paving the way for an entirely new class of precision therapies with broad impact on human health.
Additionally at this year’s forum, Oben Health and Malama Health were recognized with the 2026 Kraft Prize for Excellence and Innovation in Community Health and the inaugural Kraft Impact Accelerator Award, respectively. Oben Health uses AI to bring preventive cardiovascular screenings into trusted community settings such as barbershops and salons, while Malama Health combines remote monitoring, care navigation, and doula support to expand access to maternal health care.
All panels and presentations from the 2026 World Medical Innovation Forum can be accessed here.
Media contacts
Ryan Jaslow
Program Director, External Communications
rjaslow@mgb.org
Marcela Quintanilla Dieck
Program Manager, External Communications
mquintanilladieck@mgh.harvard.edu
About Mass General Brigham
Mass General Brigham is an integrated academic health care system, uniting great minds to solve the hardest problems in medicine for our communities and the world. Mass General Brigham connects a full continuum of care across a system of academic medical centers, community and specialty hospitals, a health insurance plan, physician networks, community health centers, home care, and long-term care services. Mass General Brigham is a nonprofit organization committed to patient care, research, teaching, and service to the community. In addition, Mass General Brigham is one of the nation’s leading biomedical research organizations with several Harvard Medical School teaching hospitals. For more information, please visit massgeneralbrigham.org.