A pioneer in digital health and a recognized thought leader, people-inspiring founder, serial entrepreneur and global manager
Roberto Ascione is a healthcare innovation entrepreneur, investor, and global thought leader with over 25 years of experience at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and business transformation. Throughout his career, he has built and scaled companies, advised global institutions, invested in next-generation health ventures, and contributed to shaping the global agenda on health innovation.
With a medical background and early expertise in medical informatics and clinical research, Roberto began working at the forefront of digital health in the late 1990s, well before it became mainstream. In 1997, he founded Healthware, which evolved into Healthware Group in 2002, becoming one of the world’s first companies dedicated entirely to digital health and innovation in life sciences. Under his leadership, the company grew into an international organization serving leading pharmaceutical, biotech, and healthcare companies across Europe and the United States, ultimately leading to a successful exit to Publicis Groupe
After holding senior international leadership roles within Publicis and Razorfish Healthware (where he served as Global President), Roberto returned in 2015 to Healthware, which had become an independent company again, as CEO, while accelerating its strategic expansion and positioning it as a reference partner for innovation in the life sciences and healthcare sectors.
In 2023, Healthware Group was acquired by EVERSANA, marking a significant milestone in its growth journey. Following the acquisition, Roberto assumed the role of President, Health Innovation at EVERSANA, where he led initiatives focused on patient-centric innovation, data-driven transformation, and the integration of emerging technologies across the healthcare value chain.
In parallel, Roberto founded Future Health, an AI-driven ecosystem company focused on shaping the future of healthcare by combining innovation, venture building, and strategic collaboration across the healthcare landscape. Through Future Health, he works with entrepreneurs, healthcare organizations, and investors to develop and scale new models of care powered by AI, data-enabled medicine, digital therapeutics, and next-generation healthcare technologies, helping create more accessible, sustainable, and human-centered healthcare systems across Europe and global markets.
Roberto is also the Chairman of Frontiers Health, one of the leading global conferences dedicated to healthcare innovation and digital health. Since its inception, Frontiers Health has become an international platform bringing together executives, clinicians, policymakers, investors, and entrepreneurs from over 60 countries to discuss the future of healthcare.
“It was in 1993, when I was dreaming of computer science transforming medicine. A little later Healthware was born.
It is amazing to see how since then digital technologies have been disrupting healthcare: they have become the driving force behind better health outcomes and are helping to reduce the healthcare access divide.”Roberto Ascione
Roberto’s books!
Technology is changing every aspect of our lives (from our attitudes). How will it impact the health universe? How our ways of thinking about it and above all the automatisms that we have inherited from our parents?
To take care of ourselves and our loved ones, already today, we need a radical change of mentality. What is learning needed? What awaits us? Remote control via smartphone, no exam queues, apps in place of medicines… Artificial Intelligence will also enter the field with force health, in some cases defining real “digital therapies”. The change could not be more disruptive.
Roberto talks about the digital trasformation of health in the books “The Future of Health”, available in Italian and in English.
