Ashutosh K. Tewari (born in

Kanpur Kanpur or Cawnpore ( /kɑːnˈpʊər/ pronunciation (help·info)) is an industrial city in the central-western part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1207, Kanpur became one of the most important commercial and military stations o ...

, India) is the chairman of

urology Urology (from Greek οὖρον ''ouron'' "urine" and '' -logia'' "study of"), also known as genitourinary surgery, is the branch of medicine that focuses on surgical and medical diseases of the urinary-tract system and the reproductive org ...

at the

Icahn School of Medicine The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS or Mount Sinai), formerly the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is a private medical school in New York City. It is the academic teaching arm of the Mount Sinai Health System, which manages eight ...

at Mount Sinai Hospital in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He is a

board certified Board certification is the process by which a physician or other professional demonstrates a mastery of advanced knowledge and skills through written, practical, or simulator-based testing. Certification bodies There are more than 25 boards that ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

urologist Urology (from Greek οὖρον ''ouron'' "urine" and ''-logia'' "study of"), also known as genitourinary surgery, is the branch of medicine that focuses on surgical and medical diseases of the urinary-tract system and the reproductive organ ...

oncologist Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγκος (''ó ...

, and

principal investigator In many countries, the term principal investigator (PI) refers to the holder of an independent grant and the lead researcher for the grant project, usually in the sciences, such as a laboratory study or a clinical trial. The phrase is also often us ...

. Before moving to the

in 2013, he was the founding director of both the Center for Prostate Cancer at

Weill Cornell Medical College The Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University is Cornell University's biomedical research unit and medical school located in Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York. Weill Cornell Medicine is affiliated with NewY ...

and the LeFrak Center for Robotic Surgery at

NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools, Cornell University and Columbia University. The hospital comprises seven distinct campuses located in the New Y ...

. Dr. Tewari was the Ronald P. Lynch endowed Chair of Urologic Oncology and the hospital's Director of Robotic Prostatectomy, treating patients with

prostate The prostate is both an Male accessory gland, accessory gland of the male reproductive system and a muscle-driven mechanical switch between urination and ejaculation. It is found only in some mammals. It differs between species anatomically, ...

urinary bladder The urinary bladder, or simply bladder, is a hollow organ in humans and other vertebrates that stores urine from the kidneys before disposal by urination. In humans the bladder is a distensible organ that sits on the pelvic floor. Urine enters ...

and other urological

cancers Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Poss ...

. He is the current President of the Society for Urologic Robotic Surgeons (SURS) and the Committee Chair of the Prostate Program. Dr. Tewari is a world leading urological

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

, and has performed over 10,000 robotically assisted procedures using the

da Vinci Surgical System The Da Vinci Surgical System is a robotic surgical system that uses a minimally invasive surgical approach. The system is manufactured by the company Intuitive Surgical. The system is used for prostatectomies, and increasingly for cardiac ...

. Academically, he is recognized as a world-renowned expert on urologic oncology with over 250 peer reviewed published papers to his credit; he is on such lists as America's Top Doctors,

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'', ...

's Best Doctors, and Who's Who in the World. In 2012, he was given the

American Urological Association The American Urological Association (AUA) is a professional association in the United States for urology professionals. It has its headquarters at the William P. Didusch Center for Urologic History in Maryland. AUA works with many international o ...

Gold Cystoscope Award for "outstanding contributions to the field of urologic oncology, most notably the treatment of prostate cancer and the development of novel techniques to improve the outcomes of robotic prostatectomy."

Robotic prostatectomy

With the introduction of the

, the advent of

robotic surgery Robotic surgery are types of surgical procedures that are done using robotic systems. Robotically assisted surgery was developed to try to overcome the limitations of pre-existing minimally-invasive surgical procedures and to enhance the capabil ...

using a

laparoscopic Laparoscopy () is an operation performed in the abdomen or pelvis using small incisions (usually 0.5–1.5 cm) with the aid of a camera. The laparoscope aids diagnosis or therapeutic interventions with a few small cuts in the abdomen.Medli ...

approach has significantly changed the way

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...

surgery Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pat ...

and

prostatectomy Prostatectomy (from the Ancient Greek language, Greek , "prostate" and , "excision") as a medical term refers to the surgical removal of all or part of the prostate gland. This operation is done for benignity, benign conditions that cause urina ...

procedures in general are performed as compared to the traditional 'open' methodology. Much of Tewari's research projects serve to promote robotic surgery as opposed to open procedures. For example, Tewari has shown that the operating field has become more visible to the surgeon, unobscured by the copious amounts of blood encountered in traditional surgery and is thus able to view the urological structures under

three-dimensional Three-dimensional space (also: 3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a geometric setting in which three values (called ''parameters'') are required to determine the position of an element (i.e., point). This is the informal ...

, enlarged magnification. Patients reap even greater benefits. Due to the

minimally invasive Minimally invasive procedures (also known as minimally invasive surgeries) encompass surgical techniques that limit the size of incisions needed, thereby reducing wound healing time, associated pain, and risk of infection. Surgery by definition ...

nature of the procedure, they experience minimized pain, minimized blood loss, less

scarring A scar (or scar tissue) is an area of fibrous tissue that replaces normal skin after an injury. Scars result from the biological process of wound repair in the skin, as well as in other organs, and tissues of the body. Thus, scarring is a na ...

and fewer complications. Post-surgery recovery is accelerated and patients experience quicker return to urinary continence and

sexual function Sexual function is how the body reacts in different stages of the sexual response cycle, or as a result of sexual dysfunction. Relevant aspects of sexual function are defined on the basis of a modified version of Masters and Johnson's work. The aspe ...

. Some of Tewari's current research is focused on comparing the benefits of robot-assisted surgery with traditional open prostatic surgery.

Career

On 15 October 2013, Dr. Tewari was named the

chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

at the

at Mount Sinai Hospital in

. Previously he served as Director of the Lefrak Institute of Robotic Surgery, Director of Prostate cancer, as well as the Director of Robotic Prostatectomy and Prostate Cancer-Urologic Oncology Outcomes at the Brady Urology Foundation of

Weill Medical College The Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University is Cornell University's biomedical research unit and medical school located in Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York. Weill Cornell Medicine is affiliated with NewY ...

. He is a tenured Professor of Urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. In addition, Tewari directs a

fellowship A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

program in Robotic Prostatectomy and Prostate Cancer Outcomes that has conducted research comparing robotic surgery outcomes versus those of

and open surgeries. Tewari is an Attending

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

at the Mount Sinai Hospital in

Medical degree

Receiving his

medical degree A medical degree is a professional degree admitted to those who have passed coursework in the fields of medicine and/or surgery from an accredited medical school. Obtaining a degree in medicine allows for the recipient to continue on into special ...

from

Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College (GSVMMC or GSVM Medical College) is a public medical college in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. The college is named after Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, a freedom fighter and journalist from Kanpur. It wa ...

(GSVM) in

city of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

, India, Tewari graduated with honors in 1984 with 17 gold academic medals to credit. He received his training in

from

Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences is a medical Institute under the State Legislature Act in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, south of Hazratganj on Raebareli Road. It was established in 1983 and is named after Sanjay Gandhi. Th ...

(SGPGIMS) in India under the mentorship of Professor

Mahendra Bhandari Mahendra Bhandari (born 24 December 1945) is an Indian surgeon who has made substantial contributions to the specialty of urology, medical training, hospital administration, robotic surgery and medical ethics. For his efforts, he was awarded ...

and completed the McH and

DNB Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

program in 1991.

Training

Tewari has

trained Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. I ...

in the U.S. at UCSF, University of Florida and at HFHS under Dr. Mani Menon, where was part of the surgical team that performed the first robotic procedure at VUI. Tewari completed his urology residency at the

Vattikuti Urology Institute The Vattikuti Urology Institute (VUI) at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, is a clinical and research center for urological care. It is known for being the first institute to implement robotic surgery as a type of treatment for patie ...

(VUI) of the

Henry Ford Hospital Henry Ford Hospital (HFH) is an 877-bed tertiary care hospital, education and research complex at the western edge of the New Center area in Detroit, Michigan. The flagship facility for the Henry Ford Health System, it was one of the first hos ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, in 2004. He received his urologic oncology research training at the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It cond ...

in 1994, the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

in 1998, and VUI in 2004.

Research

Tewari's research interests revolve around the

diagnosis Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine " cause and effect". In systems engin ...

and treatment of patients with urological cancers, with a focus on

. His research ranges from the study of patient outcomes, robotic techniques, molecular markers for cancer aggressiveness, racial disparity in cancer biology, quality of life studies, strategies to improve nerve sparing and sexual function recovery, and anatomic studies to facilitate continence preservation to the development of next generation robotic techniques. He has received several federal and non-federal

research funding Research funding is a term generally covering any funding for scientific research, in the areas of natural science, technology, and social science. Different methods can be used to disburse funding, but the term often connotes funding obtained thr ...

grants for his research on prostate cancer, totaling several million dollars in grant capital. He is one of the few urologists in the world to receive an

NIH The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

R01 Grant. Additionally, he is among the first surgeons to use real time tissue imaging during surgery to minimize nerve damage in the patient and was the first surgeon in the world to use the catheter-less Prostate Surgery. The catheter-less surgery minimizes postoperative pain after prostatectomy.

Professional activities

Tewari serves as a reviewer for a number of prestigious professional journals including the Journal of Urology,

British Journal of Urology ''BJU International'' (or ''BJUI'', formerly known as the ''British Journal of Urology'') is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal that was established in 1929. The editor-in-chief is Freddie Hamdy and the journal is published by Wiley-Blackw ...

, Contemporary Urology,

Medscape Medscape is a website providing access to medical information for clinicians; the organization also provides continuing education for physicians and health professionals. It references medical journal articles, Continuing Medical Education (CM ...

, Post Graduate Medicine, and Oncology Operational. He is the associate editor for BJU International. Tewari has served as a visiting professor and lecturer at dozens of venues both in the United States and abroad. Recently, Tewari spoke at the Annual International Prostate & Robotics Symposium in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

and the Ohio State World Symposium of Robotic Surgery. He is also previously been on faculty of the

International Robotic Urology Symposium International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

Society memberships

In addition to directing serving as Chairman of Urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Tewari is a member of several professional societies including: American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, American Urological Association, NYS Medical Advisory Board, International Society of Quality of Life Research, Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons, Society of Minimally Invasive Therapy, Society of Urologic Oncology (SUO), Indian Association of Urological Surgeons and Michigan Prostate Cancer Consortium.

Philanthropy

Covid-19 Relief in India

Dr. Tewari responded to the COVID-19 crisis in India by rallying together with his team at the Department of Urology, his charitable organization Global Prostate Cancer Research Foundation, and the Mount Sinai Health System leadership, to donate over 450 pallets with over $4 million worth of oxygen concentrators, ventilators, BiPap machines and PPE equipment. The life-supporting devices were shipped to Mumbai and distributed to hospitals across India. The initiative, called Project Heal India, was supported by actor Anupam Kher along with

Baba Kalyani Babasaheb Neelkanth Kalyani is an Indian businessman who served as the chairman and managing director of Bharat Forge, the Flagship company of the Kalyani Group and the world's second-largest forgings manufacturer after ThyssenKrupp of Germany. ...

, the chairman and managing director of

Bharat Forge Bharat Forge Limited is an Indian multinational company involved in forging, automotives, energy, construction and mining, railways, marine, aerospace and defence industries. The company was founded by Nilkanthrao A. Kalyani on 19 June 1961. He ...

, who assisted in coordinating the distribution of the essential supplies in India.

Mount Sinai Robert F. Smith Mobile Prostate Cancer Screening Unit Program

The Mount Sinai Robert F. Smith Mobile Prostate Cancer Screening Unit Program was launched to support prostate health in Black communities through mobile screening appointments and follow-up visits with urologists at Mount Sinai Hospital. The project, funded through a grant by philanthropist Robert F. Smith, is in response to the higher incidence and mortality of prostate cancer in Black men. Expected to launch in 2021, the program, headed by Dr. Tewari, will partner with local communities and raise prostate cancer awareness.

Awards and honors

Dr. Tewari was honored for his contributions during the pandemic in Crain's Notable in Health Care 2021. He also received the prestigious Gold Cystoscope Award in 2012 for his contributions to the field of urologic oncology. Dr. Tewari is the recipient of the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award by Marquis Who's Who and certified as Most Compassionate Doctor by Vitals.com.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tewari, Ashutosh American surgeons Indian emigrants to the United States University of California, San Francisco alumni University of Florida alumni Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences alumni Cornell University faculty American roboticists American urologists American medical researchers 1960 births Living people American businesspeople American health professionals of Indian descent Place of birth missing (living people)