Northwell Health’s Constellation Forum 2026 Brings Global Leaders Together to Advance Women’s Health Innovation
Northwell Health has concluded its Constellation Forum 2026, a two-day summit that brought together healthcare executives, researchers, investors, policymakers, and technology innovators to explore opportunities to advance women’s health. Held in New York City on October 21 and 22, the event focused on the challenges facing women’s healthcare and the potential for research, emerging technologies, and new care delivery models to improve health outcomes.
Part of Northwell Health’s Raise Health Thought Leadership series, the forum created a platform for discussions on the current state of women’s health, persistent gaps in research and clinical care, and strategies to accelerate innovation across the healthcare ecosystem.
The gathering featured discussions on women’s health research, artificial intelligence, healthcare delivery, maternal health equity, and the role of partnerships in translating scientific discoveries into practical solutions. Speakers represented healthcare institutions, research organizations, technology companies, investment firms, government, and industry associations.
John D’Angelo, MD, president and CEO of Northwell Health, hosted the forum, which opened with a welcome reception on October 21, followed by the main program on October 22.
D’Angelo emphasized the need for greater investment and representation in women’s health, noting that collaboration across healthcare, science, policy, and innovation could help turn promising ideas into meaningful improvements for women and families.
The forum reflected Northwell Health’s broader commitment to improving women’s healthcare through research, personalized treatment, coordinated clinical services, education, and prevention. It also highlighted the importance of addressing disparities that affect access to care and health outcomes throughout women’s lives.
Addressing Longstanding Gaps in Women’s Health
The forum opened with a discussion examining how women’s health has historically been approached in medical research, clinical practice, and public policy. The session explored persistent gaps in healthcare and considered how emerging technologies, improved data analysis, and innovative care models could help address them.
The opening panel featured Esther Krofah, executive vice president of health at the Milken Institute, and Carolyn M. Mazure, PhD, founding director of Women’s Health Research at Yale School of Medicine and former chair of the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research. Stacey E. Rosen, MD, senior vice president of Northwell’s Katz Institute for Women’s Health and immediate past president of the American Heart Association, moderated the discussion.
The panel addressed the need to move women’s health from a historically underrepresented area of medicine to a more prominent focus of research and healthcare investment.
Women’s health encompasses a broad range of medical needs, including reproductive and maternal health, cardiovascular disease, fertility, menopause, and conditions that affect women differently from men. Understanding these differences can help researchers and clinicians develop more appropriate approaches to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
Research that accounts for sex-specific and gender-related differences is important for identifying variations in disease presentation, treatment responses, and health risks. When these factors are not adequately considered, opportunities to improve diagnosis and care may be missed.
The discussion also highlighted the importance of translating research findings into clinical practice. Scientific advances must be supported by effective healthcare delivery systems, informed clinicians, accessible services, and policies that enable patients to benefit from new knowledge.
Rosen described the forum as an opportunity for stakeholders to reconsider traditional approaches to women’s healthcare. She highlighted the convergence of scientific research, technology, and new models of care delivery as a potential driver of progress.
The discussion underscored a central theme of the event: improving women’s health requires coordinated efforts across research, healthcare delivery, investment, and policy rather than relying on isolated initiatives.
Artificial Intelligence and Its Role in Women’s Healthcare
Artificial intelligence was another major focus of Constellation Forum 2026, with a dedicated session exploring how the technology could influence the future of women’s health.
Anne Stake of Anthropic’s Beneficial Deployments team, which focuses on global health, participated in a discussion titled “Where AI and Women’s Health Intersect.” Chethan Sathya, MD, vice president of strategy at Northwell Health, moderated the conversation.
The session examined the potential applications of AI in healthcare and the importance of deploying the technology in ways that deliver meaningful benefits to healthcare systems, communities, and individual patients.
AI is increasingly being explored across healthcare for applications such as analyzing medical information, supporting clinical workflows, identifying patterns in health data, and helping organizations manage complex information. In women’s health, these capabilities could contribute to research, risk assessment, patient education, and the development of more personalized approaches to care.
For example, researchers may use AI-enabled tools to analyze large datasets and investigate patterns related to reproductive health, pregnancy complications, cardiovascular disease, and other conditions. Healthcare organizations may also explore the technology to support administrative processes, improve access to relevant information, and help clinicians navigate complex workflows.
However, the potential benefits of AI depend on the quality of the data used, the design of the systems, and the clinical settings in which they are deployed. Healthcare organizations must also consider privacy, security, accuracy, transparency, and the risk that existing biases in medical data could affect system performance.
These considerations are particularly important in women’s health, where historical gaps in research and representation may influence the information available to technology developers.
The forum’s AI discussion highlighted the importance of connecting technical innovation with clearly defined healthcare needs. Rather than adopting technology solely because it is available, healthcare organizations must determine where it can support better decisions, improve patient experiences, and complement the work of clinicians.
Collaboration between technology companies, medical professionals, researchers, and healthcare systems can help identify appropriate applications and evaluate their practical value. Such partnerships may also help organizations develop responsible deployment strategies that account for the needs of different patient populations.
Patient Experience Highlights the Importance of Coordinated Care
One of the forum’s most significant moments came when Northwell Health patient Fatimah Shepherd shared her experience navigating a high-risk pregnancy, kidney failure, and subsequent recovery.
Shepherd’s case demonstrated how coordinated care involving multiple medical specialties can help manage complex conditions and support patients through serious health challenges.
Living with lupus and kidney failure, Shepherd experienced pregnancy complications that threatened both her life and the life of her unborn child. She remained hospitalized for nearly five months under close supervision from specialists in nephrology, maternal-fetal medicine, and cardiology.
On July 5, 2024, she delivered a healthy son, Oakari, through an emergency cesarean section. According to the account shared at the forum, the baby did not require neonatal intensive care.
Her medical journey continued after childbirth. Shepherd developed postpartum cardiomyopathy, a serious condition affecting the heart’s ability to pump blood. Her care team identified the condition, allowing her to receive appropriate treatment. She subsequently recovered and underwent a successful kidney transplant.
Her experience illustrated the importance of communication and coordination among specialists when patients face multiple, interconnected medical conditions.
High-risk pregnancies can require close collaboration among obstetricians, maternal-fetal medicine specialists, cardiologists, nephrologists, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. Each specialty contributes expertise, but effective coordination is essential to ensure that treatment decisions account for the patient’s overall health.
Integrated care models can help teams share clinical information, monitor changes in a patient’s condition, and coordinate treatment plans across departments. They can also help reduce fragmentation when patients require services from several specialties over an extended period.
Shepherd’s story brought these operational considerations into a personal context, showing how coordinated clinical care can affect patients and families during particularly vulnerable periods.
Addressing Maternal Health Disparities
The patient discussion also drew attention to persistent racial disparities in maternal health outcomes in the United States, particularly the risks experienced by Black women.
According to the information presented at the forum, Black women experience maternal mortality rates approximately three times those of white women. This disparity underscores the need for sustained efforts to improve access to high-quality maternity care, identify complications early, and address differences in treatment and outcomes.
Maternal health outcomes are influenced by several factors, including access to prenatal and postpartum services, underlying health conditions, the quality of clinical care, and broader social and economic circumstances. Improving outcomes therefore requires action across the healthcare system, from preventive care and risk identification to emergency response and continued monitoring after childbirth.
Postpartum care is particularly important because serious complications may develop after delivery. Cardiovascular conditions, hypertension, infections, and other medical issues can pose risks during the weeks and months following childbirth. Patients with pre-existing health conditions may require additional monitoring and coordination between specialists.
Healthcare organizations can respond by strengthening follow-up systems, improving communication between maternity services and other clinical departments, and ensuring that patients understand warning signs that require prompt medical attention.
They can also use data to identify disparities, evaluate clinical outcomes, and determine whether interventions are reaching patients who face the greatest risks.
Shepherd’s experience illustrated the value of a coordinated approach that extended beyond childbirth to include postpartum complications and longer-term treatment. Her story reinforced the importance of designing care pathways that consider the full continuum of maternal health rather than focusing exclusively on delivery.
Northwell Health has identified maternal morbidity, particularly Black maternal health, as an important area of focus within its broader women’s health initiatives.
Diverse Leaders Contribute Perspectives Across Healthcare
Constellation Forum 2026 featured speakers from a wide range of organizations and professional backgrounds. Their participation brought together perspectives on research, clinical care, technology, investment, health insurance, public policy, and healthcare innovation.
Among the speakers were Sandra E. Brooks, MD, CEO of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; Emily Capodilupo, senior vice president of research, algorithms, and data at WHOOP; and Janine Austin Clayton, MD, associate director for research on women’s health at the National Institutes of Health.
Other participants included Bertha Coombs, former senior healthcare reporter at CNBC; Ken Gustavsen, managing director of the Merck Impact Venture Fund; Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of EmblemHealth; and Arjun Kaushik, CEO of VitalTrace.
The program also included Esther Krofah of the Milken Institute, Holly Maloney of General Catalyst, and Shweta Maniar, global director of life sciences solutions and strategy at Google Cloud.
Carolyn M. Mazure, PhD, of Yale School of Medicine, and Katie Hunt-Morr, chief operating officer and senior vice president of impact platforms at ICONIQ Impact, also participated.
Lauren Underwood, U.S. representative for Illinois’s 14th Congressional District and co-chair of the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, contributed a public-policy perspective to the broader conversation.
The range of speakers reflected the interconnected nature of women’s health innovation. Scientific research can identify unmet needs, but addressing those needs often requires funding, policy support, technology development, clinical implementation, and sustained engagement with patients.
Investors and healthcare companies can help support promising innovations, while policymakers influence the regulatory and funding environments in which healthcare services and research operate. Clinical organizations, meanwhile, play a central role in determining how new evidence and technologies are incorporated into patient care.
By convening these groups, the forum sought to encourage discussion across traditional organizational boundaries and create opportunities for shared approaches to women’s health challenges.
Investment and Innovation as Drivers of Progress
The forum’s participation from investors and industry leaders highlighted the role of funding and strategic partnerships in advancing women’s health.
Developing new treatments, diagnostic tools, and digital health solutions can require substantial investment over extended periods. Companies must establish that their technologies address meaningful clinical needs, generate appropriate evidence, and can be integrated into healthcare systems.
Investment can support research and development, clinical studies, technology development, and efforts to expand access to care. Strategic partnerships may also help innovators understand healthcare delivery requirements and identify potential routes to market.
Women’s health has attracted increasing attention from researchers, healthcare organizations, and investors seeking to address areas where medical needs remain unmet. Yet translating interest into lasting progress requires resources to be directed toward solutions that can demonstrate value for patients and healthcare providers.
Discussions involving investment firms, technology companies, and clinical organizations can help identify barriers that prevent promising ideas from progressing. These may include limited research funding, challenges recruiting participants for studies, complex regulatory requirements, and difficulties incorporating new technologies into existing workflows.
The Constellation Forum created a space for stakeholders to examine these issues and consider how collaboration might help move innovation forward.
Northwell Health’s Broader Commitment to Women’s Health
Northwell Health, through its Katz Institute for Women’s Health, focuses on improving women’s health across their lifespans by connecting preventive care, research, and personalized clinical services.
Its approach spans sex- and gender-specific research, coordinated healthcare delivery, maternal health, fertility, midlife health, menopause care, education, and prevention. The institute’s work reflects the understanding that women’s health needs change throughout life and can involve multiple medical specialties.
A comprehensive approach to women’s healthcare includes preventive services and routine screenings as well as specialized treatment for complex conditions. It also requires attention to how diseases may present differently in women and how social and clinical factors can affect access to care.
Research remains an important component of this work. Better representation in clinical studies and greater understanding of sex-specific differences can help inform medical guidelines and support the development of more appropriate treatments.
At the clinical level, coordinated care can help patients navigate services across departments and receive treatment that reflects their individual circumstances. Education and prevention initiatives can also help patients understand health risks, recognize symptoms, and make informed decisions about care.
Northwell’s emphasis on maternal health equity reflects the need to address disparities alongside improvements in clinical practice. Initiatives focused on maternal morbidity, postpartum monitoring, and coordinated specialist care can contribute to broader efforts to improve outcomes for women and families.
The Constellation Forum extended this mission by bringing together stakeholders who can contribute to research, policy, technology, investment, and healthcare delivery.
Turning Discussion Into Action
The conclusion of Constellation Forum 2026 marked the end of a two-day gathering, but the issues explored during the event extend well beyond the summit itself.
The discussions highlighted several priorities for advancing women’s health: increasing research attention, improving the use of health data, evaluating responsible applications of artificial intelligence, strengthening coordinated care, addressing maternal health disparities, and encouraging investment in solutions that respond to unmet clinical needs.
Patient experiences such as Shepherd’s also demonstrated why innovation must be connected to practical improvements in care. Advanced technologies and new research findings can be valuable, but their impact depends on whether healthcare organizations can translate them into accessible, effective services for patients.
Collaboration between researchers, clinicians, technology developers, investors, and policymakers can help identify promising approaches and address barriers to implementation. It can also support more consistent evaluation of outcomes, ensuring that new initiatives are assessed not only by their technical capabilities but by their effects on patients and healthcare systems.
For Northwell Health, the forum reinforced its commitment to advancing women’s health through research, personalized care, and collaboration across the healthcare ecosystem.
As the healthcare industry continues to explore new scientific discoveries and digital tools, the challenge will be to ensure that innovation addresses the needs of women across different ages, backgrounds, and health circumstances. The conversations at Constellation Forum 2026 underscored the importance of sustained, coordinated efforts to make that progress possible.
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