AI in Healthcare

The University of Leicester and Apollo Hospitals Just Held Their First Joint AI Healthcare Conference — Showcasing What a UK-India Research Partnership Looks Like in Practice

By Mustafa Shariff, Editor in Chief · July 21,2026 · 2 min read

Mustafa Shariff, Editor in Chief — The University of Leicester and Apollo Hospitals Just Held Their First Joint AI Healthcare Conference — Showcasing What a UK-India Research Partnership Looks Like in Practice

Summary

  • University of Leicester-Apollo Healthcare Conference 2026: AI in Orthopaedics, Cancer Care and the UK-India Precision Medicine Collaboration
  • The University of Leicester-Apollo Healthcare Conference 2026 (July 14-15) showcased AI applications in orthopaedics, uterine cancer, and mesothelioma management through the Centre for Digital Health and Precision Medicine.

"At the Centre for Digital Health and Precision Medicine, we are transforming healthcare by combining clinical excellence, rigorous science, and responsible artificial intelligence to deliver measurable improvements in patient outcomes worldwide. Apollo's partnership with the University of Leicester combines complementary strengths in academia, research, and clinical practice, creating an enduring platform for innovation, education, and improved patient outcomes."

The University of Leicester and Apollo Hospitals held the first University of Leicester-Apollo Healthcare Conference 2026 on July 14 and July 15 at the University of Leicester campus, bringing together leading clinicians, researchers, healthcare executives, and innovators from across the United Kingdom and India to present and discuss research generated through their joint Centre for Digital Health and Precision Medicine (CDHPM).
The CDHPM — a research venture jointly established by The Apollo University, Apollo Hospitals, and the University of Leicester, set up formally in 2025 — serves as a critical research hub combining the medical research excellence of Leicester, one of the UK's highest-ranked clinical research universities (ranked joint 2nd in clinical medicine in the UK Research Excellence Framework 2021), with Apollo Hospitals' extensive clinical infrastructure and patient data resources across India's largest private hospital chain.
What the Conference Showcased
The conference had a particular emphasis on AI applications across specific clinical domains. AI in orthopaedics — using machine learning to improve diagnostic accuracy, surgical planning, and post-operative outcome prediction for orthopaedic patients — was among the focus areas, reflecting both institutions' interest in data-driven approaches to musculoskeletal medicine. AI applications in uterine cancer management and mesothelioma management also featured prominently — demonstrating the conference's clinical breadth across oncology and women's health.
The conference also addressed health inequalities, multiple long-term conditions, healthy ageing, environmental health, and preventive care — the public health and population medicine dimensions that sit alongside individual patient clinical applications. These broader themes connect to one of the University of Leicester's flagship research programmes: a £10 million initiative led by Professor Kamlesh Kunti that works with UK, Indian, and Nepalese governments to improve health outcomes for those with multimorbidity.
The Partnership's Academic Architecture
The University of Leicester-Apollo partnership — formally initiated through an MoU in June 2023 — has developed quickly in its institutional scope. Beyond the CDHPM research centre, the partnership includes three collaborative undergraduate programmes launched at The Apollo University in September 2025 (in AI, Electronics and Information Engineering, and Business Administration), with students completing two years in India before progressing to Leicester for the final year. Four healthcare-focused Master's programmes at the University of Leicester have also been developed, along with specialised medical training pathways in collaboration with NHS England and the BAPIO Training Academy.
Professor Nishan Canagarajah, President and Vice Chancellor of the University of Leicester, co-directed the CDHPM alongside Professor Sir Nilesh J. Samani (Professor of Cardiology, Leicester) and Dr Sujoy Kar (Chief Medical Information Officer, Apollo Hospitals). Their focus on leveraging advanced analytics and routinely collected healthcare data reflects the partnership's recognition that Apollo Hospitals' clinical data scale — generated across 73+ hospitals serving millions of patients annually — provides a research resource that the Leicester team can apply world-class analytical methods to.
Dr Anupam Sibal, Group Medical Director of Apollo Hospitals and one of India's most respected paediatric gastroenterologists, articulated the partnership's institutional logic: Apollo's partnership with the University of Leicester combines complementary strengths in academia, research, and clinical practice, creating an enduring platform for innovation, education, and improved patient outcomes.
What Makes This Different From Other Bilateral MoUs
The University of Leicester-Apollo partnership is distinctive among India-UK academic healthcare collaborations in that it has moved from MoU signing (2023) to research centre establishment (2025) to conference showcasing actual research outputs (July 2026) on a two-to-three year timeline — faster than many comparable bilateral partnerships. The combination of undergraduate education, graduate programmes, NHS pathway training, and research centre activity creates an institutional relationship with multiple layers of ongoing engagement that is more difficult to dissolve than a purely research-focused MoU.
BHC Perspective
At Bengaluru Health Community, the University of Leicester-Apollo Healthcare Conference 2026 is a UK-India healthcare research partnership story that directly reflects BHC's mission. BHC's Mentorship Platform connects healthcare founders with clinical and research experts — and the kind of structured UK-India research collaboration that Leicester and Apollo have built models exactly the type of international academic-commercial partnership that India's healthcare innovation ecosystem needs more of. For BHC founders building AI healthcare products — the CDHPM's clinical AI research agenda is a source of validated use cases and potential academic partnership opportunities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What was the University of Leicester-Apollo Healthcare Conference 2026?
A: The first annual joint conference held July 14-15 at the University of Leicester campus, showcasing research outputs from the Centre for Digital Health and Precision Medicine (CDHPM). Featured AI applications in orthopaedics, uterine cancer, and mesothelioma, plus health inequalities, healthy ageing, and preventive care.
Q: What is the CDHPM?
A: The Centre for Digital Health and Precision Medicine — a research centre jointly established by The Apollo University, Apollo Hospitals, and the University of Leicester in 2025 — combining Leicester's clinical research excellence with Apollo's Indian hospital data and clinical infrastructure to develop AI-driven precision medicine solutions.
Q: What educational programmes has the partnership created?
A: Three collaborative undergraduate programmes at The Apollo University (AI, Electronics and Information Engineering, Business Administration) launched September 2025 — with 2 years in India and final year at Leicester. Four healthcare-focused Master's programmes at Leicester, plus medical training pathways with NHS England and the BAPIO Training Academy.