The intersection of AI, healthcare, and cancer, was the focus of discussions October 1, 2025, at a conference held in the Consulate of India in New York, bringing some of the best and the brightest from India and the United States together to mull over how to meet the challenges confronting both countries.
India’s Consul General Binaya Srikanta Pradhan joined the more than hundred invitees from US and India, there to shine a light on how the two countries could strengthen collaboration in healthcare. The leading speaker and organizer was Dr. Ashutosh Tewari, chairman, Milton and Carroll Petrie Department of Urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and a world-renowned urologist and prostate cancer specialist.
“It’s a great gathering of minds focusing on cancer, longevity, health care, India, US, and AI and technology,” said Dr. Tewari, “We are here to interact with each other, understand what the issues are, and possibly come up with the synergies which will advance the field and take it to the next level,” he emphasizedin an interview with ITV Gold.
The attendees, included medical professionals, policy makers and medical entrepreneurs, several of whom addressed the gathering.
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“It’s been an exceptionally productive event. I know I have met some really great people here and forged a lot of really great relationships. And overall, it was a smashing success,” said Dr. Deepak Bhatt, director of the Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital and the Dr. Valentin Fuster Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Speakers and experts delved into how there can be further collaboration between AI and healthcare, and between experts in the United States and experts in India.
Dr. Avinash Gupta of Monmouth Medical Center, called it an amazing event organized by Mount Sinai Hospital and the Indian Consulate on healthcare, AI, and cancer. “We are learning new things and how to collaborate between India and US in this field. AI can help the Indian population in a big way. India and US can work together for global health care. We have great potential,” Dr. Gupta said.
Vivek Natarajan, research scientist at Google DeepMind, where he leads research at the intersection of AI and science and medicine, called it an honor to be at the meeting, “I truly think that India and USA together with all the brilliant minds in both countries can really advance cancer research and the delivery of care for people who need it,” he told ITV Gold, saying he was “super inspired” by the exchange of ideas.”(I have) tons of ideas that have emerged from listening to these talks, and also hoping that this is part of a lot of interesting collaborations as well,” Natarajan said.
“I believe this is the first time that an event of such a scale in the sense an entire half-day event spanning six hours,” has been held, said Smitha Rajagopal, emcee of the event. “It is a tremendous meeting of minds, … its talking about a confluence of experts coming together from different sectors but still talking under one broad umbrella of AI, cancer and health care, and the partnership between India and the US.”
Both US and India face challenges in health care that could supplement each other, the experts noted. They spoke of how US with great quality of care faces the challenge of high costs, and India has the advantage of low cost delivery, but healthcare is not reaching all who need it equitably. The two countries could help each other meet those challenges and be an example for other countries.
The discussions highlighted how in India, 70 to 80 percent of healthcare costs are paid for by people out of pocket. And if one is at the bottom of the income levels, it becomes challenging to get a decent quality of affordable health care.