AUA addresses issues in education, certification

AUA recently made a number of key appointments to its staff and board of directors, and the association is examining how it will adapt to changes in physician education, board certification, and training. In this exclusive interview, Joseph N. Corriere, Jr, MD, whose 1-year term as AUA president began in May, discusses these initiatives as well as a number of socioeconomic issues currently affecting practicing urologists. Dr. Corriere is professor of urology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston. The interview was conducted by UT Editorial Consultant Richard D. Williams, MD, professor and chairman of the department of urology at the University of Iowa, Iowa City.

Q. What are the most important issues facing urology and the AUA today?

A At the AUA, one of the biggest changes has been in our staff and board of directors. We have a new executive director, Mike Sheppard, who knows the organization well because he was the assistant director previously. Dr. Bill Gee, formerly chair of the Health Policy Council, is the AUA's new treasurer. His position as Health Policy chair was assumed by Dr. James Regan of Washington, DC. We also have two new board members-one from the New England section, Dr. Richard Babayan, and one from the Northeast section, Dr. Datta Wagle.

Q. Are there other things that the AUA is doing or can do to interest the younger urologists in organization and volunteerism?

Q. What other important issues is the AUA addressing?

A I think we have to spend more time on clinical practice guidelines now that the American Board of Urology has decided to participate in Maintenance of Certification. The AUA is making sure that its guidelines are up to date and that young people are participating in the development of the guidelines. To that end, we also have a new chairman of the guidelines committee, Dr. Roger Dmochowski from Vanderbilt University.

Q. What significant new initiatives is the AUA undertaking?

A Earlier this year, the AUA held a workshop on education, and it became clear that we must look closely at how medical education is going to be conducted over the next 10 years. Meetings are only a small part of education, and education through electronic means is becoming more and more popular. Physicians today often prefer to educate themselves at home. Dr. Joe Segura, who is the AUA's incoming secretary-elect, has been appointed the chairman of a committee to look at all of the education ventures that the association is doing or should be doing. For example, one idea is to catalog all of the AUA's education efforts so that if a urologist were interested in a particular movie, printout, or journal article, this could all be indexed and brought online through the AUA web site.

We are also going to be searching for a new chair of the Education Council to replace Dr. Dave McCullough, whose term is up in May 2006. We have opened up the candidacy to anyone who's interested. Dr. Larry Ross is the chairman of a committee that will search and scour the country for a new chair of education. This position will be filled by the 2006 annual meeting in Atlanta.