AUA 2024: Disrupting the Field of Urology

The 2024 American Urological Association’s (AUA) annual meeting highlighted the latest innovations and future trends in urology, as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion, advancements in robotic surgery, and the future landscape of urology practice and research.

The AUA meeting was held May 3-6 in San Antonio, Texas. Check out all of our coverage of the meeting.

At the conference, the following speakers provided their takeaways from the meeting:

• Alexander Kutikov, MD, FACS, chair, Department of Urology, Fox Chase Cancer Center
• Joshua Meeks, MD, PhD, associate professor of Urology, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
• Matthew Nielsen, MD, FACS, chair, Department of Urology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine

All speakers highlighted different innovations and advances that are pushing the field forward.

Transcript

Kutikov: The dovetailing of localized therapy by surgeons with systemic therapy I think it’s a big theme that gets explored at these meetings, and it’s very exciting. It really disrupts and changes the field. I thought one of the highlights was the new AUA salvage therapy guidelines for prostate cancer. That was an incredibly well-done effort by a team led by Todd Morgan, [MD, chief of urologic oncology at the University of Michigan], but the team is comprised of urologists from across the country, and these guidelines were super thoughtful and insightful. Talking to many surgeons and many urologists at the meeting, people really welcomed those.

Meeks: I’ve particularly been impressed with the amount of innovation we’ve seen at this meeting and the results that are coming out. It seems that [David F. Penson, MD, MPH, chair of the AUA’s Science and Quality Council] had a bit of an emphasis on clinical trials and outcomes. And it’s a great place for us to be as urologists. Before it was your last 100 whatevers and now it’s randomized trial readouts. That raises the level of science. It’s good that the floor of the meeting is raising up and hopefully the ceiling will continue to rise.

Nielsen: I think it's just incredibly exciting to see the energy that's here. I am really proud to be a urologist and part of the AUA. I am always so impressed by the great work that colleagues from around the world are doing. Though the first word of a AUA’s title is American, we really are global in reach, and we have many of our colleagues from around the world here with us, and we learn from each other. I think the values and purposes that animate us as urologists are not unique to people in America. But we have friends and colleagues from around the world who share that passion for the field, enthusiasm about innovation, and really just a deep, deep commitment to the patients that we serve. And so that's just energizing.

It's hard to even catalogue the amount of new activity in terms of new technologies that we can bring to our patients, new treatments for many conditions that for years have needed more attention, and given how common the conditions that we treat are—how many patients are affected by the conditions that we treat—I think people come away from a way just really optimistic and hopeful.

But no less important than that is the community that we share and reuniting with friends. Our coresidents get together for an informal dinner every year, and I spent multiple hours last night laughing probably more than I have in a long time, because we share a lot of great experiences together.