Census, AQUA Registry lead AUA data-gathering efforts

The annual AUA Census and the AUA Quality Registry (AQUA Registry) are the association’s two primary data-gathering efforts, according to J. Quentin Clemens, MD, of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. In this interview, Dr. Clemens explains how these initiatives benefit practicing urologists. He was interviewed by Urology Times Editorial Consultant Gopal H. Badlani, MD, professor of urology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, NC.

You were the chair of the AUA’s Data Committee. Please discuss the AUA’s data-gathering efforts and how they are of benefit to practicing urologists.

There are two main areas the committee has focused on. The first is the AUA Census, and we’ve already seen some benefits of participating in that related to topics such as advanced practice provider use and burnout in urology where this information can provide good ammunition to improve certain aspects of urology practice. The fact is that people with data tend to be the ones that run the discussion, so participating in the census should be viewed as something that could help all of urology and in particular practicing urologists.

The second is the AUA Quality Registry (AQUA Registry), which is a tool that can help practitioners meet many of the CMS requirements related to MACRA and MIPS. Very soon, urologists are going to see their Medicare pay cut if they don’t participate in these CMS programs. With AQUA, the AUA has set up an infrastructure to help make the process as easy as possible, and this includes having measures that are specific to urology as opposed to measures that are very tangential, such as tobacco cessation and hypertension management.