Emory Urology was well represented at the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Urologic Association (AUA) in San Diego, California, May 6-10. Faculty, trainees, and staff were involved in a total of 30 poster presentations and three podium presentations encompassing a wide range of topics, from oncology to pediatrics.
Viraj Master, MD, PhD, Professor of Urology, and Martin Sanda, MD, Professor and Emory Urology Chair, both moderated sessions; the former on advanced kidney cancer, the latter on prostate cancer detection and screening. Additionally, Ken Ogan, MD, Associate Professor of Urology, was a panelist in a plenary session discussing complex kidney stone cases, and Jeff Carney, MD, Assistant Professor of Urology, served as a course director in urethral reconstruction.
Muta Issa, MD, Professor of Urology, presented and described "Tele-Urology Versus Face to Face Clinics: A Survey of Patient Preference," one of four abstracts featured at the meeting's first press conference. The abstract also received a best presentation award. For the study, more than 400 patients at the Atlanta VA Medical Center received either an initial consultation with a physician over the telephone or met with a doctor in person. When their reactions were compared, more patients preferred the telephone consultations, perhaps because they were able to forgo such potential inconveniences as driving, parking, finding the location, and having to register.
While they were surprised at the findings, Dr. Issa and his coauthors—Jeffrey Pearl, MD, Ilan Safir, MD, Robert Gerhard, MD, Irina Kirillova, RN, James Baumgardner, PA-C, Jennifer Lindelow, PA-C, and Christopher Filson, MD—hope that they can provide a model for future medical care.
John Petros, MD, Professor of Urology and Pathology, also presented research on race-specific biomarkers for prostate cancer progression; Mehrdad Alemozaffar, MD, Assistant Professor of Urology, presented research on bladder cancer using robotic radical cystectomy; and Rebecca Arnold, MS, PhD, Assistant Professor of Urology, discussed the interaction of drugs, disease, and genes in the form of simvastatin, prostate cancer, and the mitochondrial genome.
Emory Urology resident participation was robust as well, as Jonathan Huang, MD, presented two abstracts; Jeffrey Pearl, MD, presented four; and Samuel David, MD, Ilan Safir, MD, and Steven Gerhard, MD, each presented one. Emory Urology research staff members Carrie Sun, Research Specialist, and Dattatraya Patil, MBBS, MPH, Senior Biostatistician, also presented one study each.
The conference was capped by Emory Urology's Annual Alumni and Friends Reception, held on the evening of May 9th at Roy's Restaurant on the San Diego waterfront, where friends, colleagues, alumni, and current trainees gathered to catch up and swap stories.
