AUA 2020 annual meeting canceled

The 2020 AUA annual meeting has been canceled as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

“Due to rapidly escalating health concerns, coupled with U.S. President Trump’s emergency declaration, the AUA has made the difficult, but necessary decision to cancel the 2020 AUA Annual Meeting in Washington, DC. There is no higher priority to the AUA than the health, safety and well-being of our members, staff, partners, volunteers, guests and the community at large,” the AUA said in a statement.

“We recognize the AUA Annual Meeting is a major global event for the urology community and preparing for it involves the time and talent of a great many of our physician volunteers, speakers and exhibitors. We are incredibly grateful for their time and deeply disappointed not to be able to hold the meeting as planned.”
The association said it was unable to reschedule the meeting, “given the logistics that go into organizing a meeting of this size.” It added, however, that “in the coming weeks we intend to tap into the innovative spirit of our specialty and share the abstracts, surgical videos and other important clinical education from our meeting as we are able.”
Separately, the AUA’s third Annual Urology Advocacy Summit, originally scheduled for mid-March on Capitol Hill, has been postponed until later this year, and the April meeting of the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons has been canceled. Earlier, the European Association of Urology announced it postponed its annual congress from March 20-24 to July, and year’s Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand annual scientific meeting was canceled outright.