Wayne Kuang, MD, on multidisciplinary collaboration for treating BPH

In this video, Wayne Kuang, MD, discusses the importance of collaborating with other health care professionals when treating benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Kuang is a urologist and CEO of the MD for Men Team in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Transcription:

How should urologists collaborate with other health care professionals to manage patients with BPH with comorbid conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, or neurogenic bladder disorders?

The question about, how do we come together as a health care system as providers, and how do we collaborate to really take men's health to the next level, because it is very complex. One of the first things we did for the Man vs Prostate campaign was we actually surveyed all the urologists globally on LinkedIn to see, how do we want to think about Man vs Prostate and the male lower urinary tract symptoms when we put the bladder at the very center of the discussion. What was really important is that we needed collaboration with neurologists, endocrinologists, primary care doctors, pharma, the medical device industry, to all come together and really recognize that there's so many other contributing factors; for example, aging. As men get older, bladder muscles are also going to get older and get weaker. We need to factor that in. We need to factor in diabetes. How does the effect on diabetic cystopathy, pathologies on the bladder due to diabetes, influence lower urinary tract symptoms or neurologic dysfunctions like multiple sclerosis or Parkinson's disease, or the fact that we now, currently in America, have an epidemic of obesity. What's the impact when you have all that adipose tissue in the abdomen sitting on the bladder? So now the bladder has to work even harder trying to hold up all this abdominal fat. So as you can see, there are multiple etiologies that contribute to symptoms for voiding. Yes, BPH/BPO is a contributor, but we need to recognize all these other factors and really collaborate with each other. The collaboration starts with gratitude and a celebration. Thank you all the academics, community docs, primary care, the specialists, as well as even beyond that, our staff who are sitting with our patients as we're doing urodynamics or getting them ready for cystoscopy or the front desk, check in/check out, pharmaceuticals, medical device industry. We're all part of this equation. So thank you for coming together. If we synergize our efforts and our energy, as the level of the sea rises, all ships on the sea will rise with it.

I think we also need to recognize and emphasize that it's not shared decision-making only, but it's also shared care. We all have a part involved. We need to start communicating. Each health care system has different patterns for referrals that we need to figure out. Maybe in 1 system, urologists are happy seeing anyone with an IPSS of 8 and above, or perhaps in another health care system, they want an IPSS of 8 and above plus slow flow, Qmax less than 15 ccs per second. Most importantly is the right dialog amongst ourselves to understand the right referral patterns. How do we use the right technology to really streamline and allow a BPH/BPO care pathway that is simple, safe, effective, efficient, and personalized? And it will be different. What works for New York City is going to be very different than what works for me here in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And I think finally, what we need to be doing is really just shouting from the rooftops a universal message: uni-verse, 1 verse, 1 song, 1 message. Remember that, yes, it is about prioritizing the preservation of bladder health, preventing late-stage disease and ending the polypharmacy epidemic. And we all have a role, whether it's social media, whether it's helping someone to understand at check in/check out, why they're having that cystoscopy to look for prostate size, prostate shape, detrusor function. It's going to take academics, the AUA, the Urology Care Foundation, supporting research, supporting public health campaigns. It's going to take communities, cities, deciding, "In the urinals, let's put a little thing in there above the urinal that says, 'hey, if you're not peeing really well, or if you can't hit the back of the porcelain, go see a urologist, because something could be going on.' " Educating men on different ways, on busses, on billboards. Think about it. Prostate cancer affects 1 in 8 men. We all hear about it on the news, in newspapers, billboards, so forth. Colon cancer [occurs in] 1 in 23. We hear about that all the time. But we hear very little about bladder health that affects 1 in 3 men 65 years and older who have moderate to severe LUTS. It's affecting 1 in 3 men, and we don't hear about it enough. And I think that's where we're going. And I think it's going to be shared care, working together to write dialog and finding what fits your sphere of influence, your micro community for urologic care, interacting with health care providers and health care staff and pharma and medical device industry and coming together as the Man vs Prostate tribe.

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