Held the second Innovation Nexus, a urology incubator powered by the AUA, at the inaugural Innovation Nexus Conference in May 2024 prior to the AUA Annual Meeting in San Antonio. It was attended by over 250 entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, investors, and urologists focused on urologic discovery.
Awarded the first Boston Scientific Medical Student Innovation Fellowship to fund a 12-month research project for a medical student from a group underrepresented in urology and interested in translating urology research into innovation.
Hosted the 2024 Early Career Investigators Workshop at AUA Headquarters to help promising urologic researchers develop grant writing skills.
The AUA DE&I Committee continued its remarkable success in 2024, building on the momentum of the FUTURE in Urology hybrid incubation and mentorship platform, which gained significant international attention since its launch with the first in-person mentorship event at the 2023 AUA Annual Meeting. The program has since grown to feature a comprehensive e-platform offering monthly live mentor/mentee interactions, on-demand meetings, and a vast library of resources for students and urology trainees. Additionally, the app component, UpSquad, expanded to over 629 members since its November 2023 launch. Participants in the FUTURE Program during the AUA Annual Meeting 2024 in San Antonio shared their positive experiences in an AUANews article, highlighting the program's importance.
The committee successfully organized its inaugural DEI Forum at the 2024 AUA Annual Meeting in San Antonio. The Forum, in which lectures, abstracts and presentations about various urologic topics were presented, was attended by 182 participants.
This marked the first year of hosting an in-person event at the 2024 AUA Annual Urology Advocacy Summit in Washington, D.C., where the excitement and positive energy were particularly noticeable during our visits to Capitol Hill, allowing medical students to take advantage of a unique opportunity to advocate for workforce issues in Urology. On February 29th, 2024, the DE&I Committee hosted a Pipeline Programs Virtual Summit to bring people together who share similar goals to the FUTURE in Urology Program. In response to feedback from that event, the committee established a grant program to bolster grassroots initiatives of effective local pipeline programs, awarding two grants in 2024 to Urology Unbound’s Pipeline Program and UCLA’s Research Presentation Support for Scholars/Integrated Summer Research Program in Urology.
In the upcoming year, the AUA's DE&I Committee will enhance its engagement and mentorship initiatives by hosting another FUTURE Program and holding the second DEI Forum at the 2025 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, along with the FUTURE Program at the 2025 Advocacy Summit in Washington, DC. The AUA DE&I Committee is dedicated to creating an inclusive and equitable environment in medical education, clinical practice, and research. Our mission focuses on increasing representation in Urology and providing leadership, networking, and skills development opportunities for underrepresented individuals in medicine (URiM) and Urology (URiU), while promoting education and research aimed at achieving health equity and improving health outcomes.
New Guidelines on Salvage Therapy for Prostate Cancer and Overactive Bladder were released in 2024 in addition to updates to Male Infertility, Non-Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer, Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer, Testosterone Deficiency, and Incontinence After Prostate Therapy.
Guidelines were featured in eight Journal of Urology® publications for 2024.
The Guidelines website saw over 1.3 million views.
All Guidelines content is now available in a new Guidelines-at-a-Glance mobile app.
AUA’s Publications had another banner year in 2024, and our publishing portfolio, which includes The Journal of Urology® (JU), Urology Practice® (UPJ), JU Open Plus (JUOP), and AUANews, continues to serve the urologic community as the definitive and collective voice of urology.
In 2024, The Journal of Urology® continued to lead urology in overall citations and social media followers, and the publication’s Journal Impact Factor remained strong. The Pathway to Publication program, which identified top-rated AUA2024 abstracts and invited authors to pursue possible publication, continued to grow this year. The program was a tremendous success, with 10 manuscripts published in JU simultaneously with their abstract presentations at the 2024 AUA Annual Meeting, and JU Open Plus additionally published 4 video articles.
Urology Practice® was indexed by the National Library of Medicine in 2023, and all articles since its initial publication in 2014 are now indexed. Since achieving this milestone, original submissions have nearly tripled, and UPJ publishing output continues to grow. In the year ahead, UPJ will continue to focus on expanding the global reach of this publication.
JU Open Plus had an amazing second year of publication in 2024. JUOP is an online-only, open access journal, with fully composed articles added to a monthly issue. The publication has benefitted from cascaded transfer submissions from JU and UPJ and received original submissions from all over the world.
AUANews saw tremendous growth in 2024, with enhanced multimedia content, including more AUANewsWorthy Webinars than ever and expanded digital content. AUANews.net is now urology’s #2 most visited site. We continue to stay focused on improving this publication, so look for some exciting content upgrades in 2025 with more streamlined, quality clinical and guidelines content.
Obtained Board approval of AUA’s National Quality Agenda and Strategies for Urologic Practice
Developed a Quality Improvement Issue Brief focusing on Indwelling Urinary Catheter Management of the Acute Patient
Developed Telehealth Resources Toolkit and Proceedings Paper from QI Summit recommendations for improving access and quality of urologic care via telehealth
Created an infographic and algorithm that highlights prostate cancer disparities and AUA’s PSA screening recommendations
Authored Journal of Urology® article entitled “From Error to Excellence: An Evolving Paradigm for Improving the Diagnostic Process”
Posted a new Engage with Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (E-QIPS) guide on “Reducing Preventable Emergency Department Visits in Benign Prostate Surgery through Implementation of Self-Irrigation of Catheters”
Developed the 2024 MIPS Toolkit and 2024 MVP Toolkit
Achieved approval of eight AQUA measures for use in the CMS MIPS program
Supported the Health Equity Metrics (“HealthEMe”) Workgroup in efforts to measure and address disparities in urologic care
Collaborated with QIPS committee members to develop resources on “How to do QI”
Our investigator award programs are essential to the development of young urology researchers and provide critical support to develop the field’s future research leaders (to date we have funded over 950 young scientists). This year, the Foundation:
Provided more than $1.4 million in funding to 41 early career investigators to support their pursuit of discoveries and breakthroughs in patient care in 11 urologic disease/condition areas. The awardees included 25 women and 8 from communities underrepresented in urology.
Funded one new Leadership in Education, Achievement and Diversity (LEAD) Program award to Adri Durant at the Mayo Clinic, Arizona.
Funded one Boston Scientific Medical Student Innovation Award in both 2023 and 2024 supporting innovative Medical Students in a 12-month research project.
Honored six outstanding researchers in their life-long commitment to urology research with the annual Research Awards of Distinction.
The Foundation continues to grow as the single largest repository in the world for urologic patient education aligned with current AUA clinical guidelines. This year, the Foundation:
Welcomed more than 10 million page views to our website, Urologyhealth.org, providing access to more than 800 pieces of physician-led patient education for patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers. This collection remains the single largest library of urology-specific patient education in the world.
Expanded its global presence with over 70 translated patient education pieces, offering 11 languages aiming to reach those facing urologic cancers and conditions. This allows individuals across the globe to access patient education content they otherwise might not be able to.
The Foundation recognizes and supports the work of urologists who are making outstanding contributions to improve urologic health in underserved areas both within and outside the U.S. This year, the Foundation:
Awarded the Humanitarian Recognition Award to Syed Adibul Hasan Rizvi, FRCS, for improving the lives of patients in Pakistan, for excellence in urologic training, and collaboration with international organizations and academic centers around the world.
Awarded 10 Humanitarian grants to individuals providing direct urologic patient care to underserved communities both inside the United States and internationally.
Launched phase two of the Health Equity Fellowship designed to train early career urologists passionate about humanitarian work within the United States so they may be effective in engaging with diverse communities, especially those most marginalized.
