Andrew Y. Sun, MD, recaps LUGPA 2024 session on APPs in men’s health

In this video, Andrew Y. Sun, MD, provides an overview of his talk, “Men’s Health,” which was presented as part of the APPs Working Group session at the 2024 LUGPA Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois. Sun is the director of men’s health at Urology Partners of North Texas.

Video Transcript:

There are 2 things that simultaneously have converged to create this kind of an event. On the one hand, men's health is growing tremendously in clinical practice. It's an interesting thing. If you look at men and women, in a lot of different ways, males do not have the equivalent of an OB-GYN after a pediatrician. So, men from the ages of 18 to 50 essentially fall off the medical care train and basically don't see anybody until they eventually get heart disease, diabetes, and all this kind of stuff. Part of the theme of why we became men's health specialists is to try and tackle some of these issues earlier on, to see if we can prevent these later term illnesses that can happen. Of course, because men are men, you have to meet the patients where they are. The only thing that may get them off the couch to go see the doctor is something related to their sexual health. If you talk to them about their penis, they'll actually come and see the doctor about it.

Then, of course, fertility as well, because oftentimes, they're like, late 20s or late 30s or something like that, and they're starting to have fertility issues. Both of the most common things in these domains, erectile dysfunction [and] infertility, are essentially reflections of the body's overall health status. In slightly infertile men or men who have a little bit of erectile dysfunction, the guy comes in and he's obese and he has diabetes, and he hasn't seen a doctor in like 15 years. If you can capture those guys earlier on, you can prevent the consequential stuff later.

Of course, as with all other trends in urology, the burden of disease is rising. More and more patients are getting older, and more people have to be seen, but we don't have enough physicians to see them. We've been—in the men's health world—I think, on the forefront of involving APPs in that care. Much of the clinical care that's provided in the men's health space, whether it's on erectile dysfunction, on Peyronie's disease, on hypogonadism or low testosterone, can basically be done by APPs. You're much more able to grow your practice by involving APPs. Part of the reason that we created this Working Group Session is to essentially highlight the role that APPs can play in building men's health practices. I work with 2 APPs in my practice; I worked with 1 in fellowship. It was a hugely critical part of how the Men's Health Clinic ran. We wanted to highlight how that works, and how to essentially make that happen in your own practice.

This transcript was AI generated and edited by human editors for clarity.