Health leaders assembled in New York City on Oct. 22 for the TIME100 Health Leadership Forum, a gathering focused on addressing critical issues in healthcare.

Experts participated in four panel discussions, tackling topics such as equitable access to healthcare, women’s health, the impact of emerging technologies, and health policy shifts.

The event commenced with a performance of an original poem by , followed by a panel featuring Dr. , author and founder and CEO of Advancing Health Equity; Adrelia Allen, executive director of clinical trial patient diversity at Merck; and , president of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and executive director of Caring Across Generations.

The panelists highlighted the need for healthcare frameworks that inclusively address the needs of vulnerable populations. Poo emphasized, “There’s some basic policies in the country that we need to make in our ability to take care of ourselves and the people we love. And if we do that, I think you can be transformative in overall health outcomes.”

The second panel, moderated by TIME correspondent Eliana Dockterman, delved into global health inequities faced by women. Participating in the discussion were Dr. Natalia Kanem, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund; Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng, the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to health; and Dr. Asif Dhar, vice chair and U.S. Life Sciences and Health Care Industry Leader for Deloitte Global Consulting Services. Panelists discussed how many women have shared experiences of feeling disregarded or overlooked by medical providers, resulting in a lack of trust in the healthcare industry.

Mofokeng also discussed a brief she presented in a U.S. court prior to the U.S. Supreme Court hearing arguments in , where she argued that restricting abortion rights would contravene international human rights treaties. She stressed that abortion is a decision that should remain between a medical provider and patient, and restricting it sets a “dangerous” precedent.  

“Once you take away one right, it’s most likely even easier to take away many other rights, and that’s why we have to see the right to health as the master key to unlock many other rights,” Mofokeng stated. “When we protect the right to health, we are also protecting multiple other human rights as well.”

In a panel examining the impact of emerging technologies in healthcare, Shyamal Patel, senior vice president and head of science of ŌURA, and Dr. David Agus, founding director and co-CEO of the Ellison Institute of Technology, discussed the opportunities and challenges involved in ensuring the adoption of wearable technologies, like smartwatches and fitness trackers, within the healthcare industry. 

“One aspect is this evolution of the technology and what we can do with it and how many aspects of our health we can understand better because we have access to this personal health technology,” Patel remarked. “And the second aspect is, how do we make sense of it and bring it into the practice of health care?”

Between panel sessions, TIME CEO Sam Jacobs engaged in a brief conversation with TIME’s 2024 Kid of the Year , a 15-year old skin cancer researcher. Bekele emphasized the importance of involving children in health and science from a young age. “I think the best way to do it is to … give exposure to people who might not have been exposed to STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] and STEAM [STEM + the arts] from a really young age,” he stated. 

The evening concluded with a . Dr. Raj Panjabi, senior partner at Flagship Pioneering and former White House senior director and special assistant to President Joe Biden; Lori M. Reilly, chief operating officer at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America; and Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, director of the Clinical Epidemiology Center and chief of the Research and Education Service at the VA St. Louis Healthcare System; discussed how the 2024 U.S. election and COVID-19 pandemic have made healthcare a more central topic of discussion today.

“Looking ahead, I imagine health care is only going to become an even more important agenda item for Presidents in either party,” Panjabi noted.

The TIME100 Health Leadership Forum was presented by Merck, Deloitte, ŌURA, and PhRMA.