HTLS 2017 speaker Dr Ash Tewari: Champion of robotic surgery

As a part of the Mount Sinai Health System that includes seven hospitals in New York, robotic surgeon, urologist, oncologist, teacher and principal investigator Dr Ash Tiwari’s days are packed. He has introduced key innovations in robotic surgery for prostate cancer and prostatectomies by using a minimally invasive approach that minimises side-effects associated with traditional ‘open’ surgery.

While the 3-D robotic procedure magnifies and makes the operating field more visible to the surgeon, it reduces pain, blood loss, scarring and post-surgery complications.

Apart from surgery, the Kanpur-born Tewari’s focuses on an active surveillance programme for prostate cancer patients, the inclusion of genomics in clinical practice, a prostate cancer nomogram to predict recurrence, and research programmes in genomics, immunology, immunotherapy and drug resistance.

He has performed more than 5,500 robotic prostate cancer surgeries and made seminal contributions on various aspects of prostate cancer research, including surgical prostate anatomy, genetic risk profiling, epidemiology, racial disparities, risk modeling and survivorship issues.

Among his newer initiatives is teaming up with other experts to decipher the influence of mind body therapies (MBTs) such as meditation, yoga, breathing and diet on cancer progression.

He has been consecutively listed in New York Magazine’s Top Doctors issue since 2006, and has authored over 250 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and textbooks on prostate cancer and robotic surgery.

Before moving to the Icahn School of Medicine in 2013, Dr Tewari was the founding director of both the Center for Prostate Cancer at Weill Cornell Medical College and the LeFrak Center for Robotic Surgery at the New York Presbyterian Hospital.