Dr. Asafu-Adjei on advancements she hopes to see come from the 2023 AUA Summit

In this interview, Denise Asafu-Adjei, MD, MPH, discusses advancements that she hopes to see come from the 2023 AUA Summit. Asafu-Adjei is a urologist at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, as well as the 2023 AUA Gallagher Scholar and a member of Urology Times’ Editorial Board.

Video Transcript:

I hope in the next couple of years, especially with some of our asks, I hope that more people have on their mind the goals of practicing in some rural and underserved areas around the United States. There just are not enough urologists. As we continue to gain support for the SPARC Act, and really get that through, I think this will allow us to place more urologists where the need is, and continue to close that gap.

Telehealth, I think that's here to stay. As we continue to advocate for that, along with some of the other specialties, I think, we want to continue to show the world that when you perform telehealth, it's just as much work as if you're seeing someone in the office. It also is a great approach to dealing with the access to care issue that we face in medicine constantly. I really hope to see continued support and expansion of how we deliver medicine and help with access to care.

I think that there's also a ton of exciting work and research and support around fine tuning and being more specific in how we target our high-risk prostate cancer patients. African American men are at a higher baseline risk for prostate cancer. How this plays into policy and how some African American and other high-risk men, how they're able to get the care they need early on is important. I hope that as we continue to gain more support for that policy area, I hope that we do see more men that can get to a urologist, get screened appropriately, and hopefully get treated in a timely fashion, as appropriate.

Continued conversations and work with Medicare and our representatives to preserve physician payments and reforms. I think there's a lot of great doctors doing great work. We have to continue to also make those reimbursements and that compensation equitable. I hope that we continue to see hopefully a stable system when it comes to physician reimbursements. But I think the future's bright, and I think we have a lot more people engaged, and we are using different avenues, social media, different platforms, to get more people informed. I think in the next few years, we're going to see a lot more voices out there, and I think that's going to move the needle on some of these issues.

This transcription has been edited for clarity.