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Canadian Urological Association annual meeting at Niagara Falls

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The Canadian Urological Association held its annual meeting in the city of Niagara Falls, Ontario from June 22-25, 2013. Traditionally this meeting signals the start of summer in Canada and after a prolonged cool and wet spring the hot weather arrived as everyone convened. The central location in our vast country assured that the meeting was well attended with attendance far exceeding expectations. Even though I probably have seen this place two dozen times since childhood the physical spectacle of this natural wonder of the world never fails to awe.

Even renewing acquaintances with the venerable old Maid of the Mist after many years provided a memorable experience.

The meeting started on Saturday and as with other international societies, many specialty sections held their meeting on this day. These included the Canadian Urological Oncology Group (CUOG) as well as the Canadian Endourological Group (CEG). A Multi-Disciplinary Collaborative meeting for Genitourinary Cancers also took place. Canadian urology has long enjoyed a fruitful and respectful relationship with our radiation and medical oncology colleagues. The featured speaker of CEG was Dr. Brian Matlaga from @brady_urology who spoke about the role of technology assessment and health economics and how they will intersect to alter care in the treatment of urolithiasis over the next decade. I suspect the same debate will occur in many other domains of our specialty. The first of many Educational Forums also began on Saturday with a review of the management of castrate-resistant prostate cancer.

Sunday served as the formal start to the meeting with the first plenary sessions and a number of abstracts presented. Dr. Patrick Walsh from Hopkins was the keynote speaker to start things off and gave an outstanding evidence-based review as well as personal account of where we are in prostate cancer care and how we can work to improve things.

Day 1 ended with the annual CUA fun night. The CUA annual meeting has always enjoyed a reputation for being a very social meeting. Our country is relatively small and the urological community is well connected. While everyone took advantage of walking behind the falls in tunnels within the Niagara Escarpment the highlight of the night was the debut of the band “The Void”. Six talented urologists from across the country held court and provided a very high-calibre performance to the delight of everyone. They have been hired back for #cua14 in St Johns Newfoundland and I suspect will offer a member’s discount.

Monday June 24 brought more great abstracts and vigorous discussion. A major highlight for me was an outstanding talk given by @Robert_Uzzo of @FCCCUroOncology on the management of renal cell carcinoma in the elderly. It was a tour-de-force that was in large part philosophical discussion on managing risk and probability in clinical decision-making supported with good evidence. It was a talk that could easily be applied to most of what we do as urologists.

Dr. Andrew Macneilly the long-time program director at the University of British Columbia gave the CUA Scholars Fund address that surveyed training of residents and implications in a future environment where job prospects may be tight and where concerns about whether we have adequate volumes to teach operative skills will continue to grow.

As with the AUA and EAU the Canadian Urological Association has a well-established set of guidelines. New guidelines approved at this meeting include:

1. Management of Castrate Resistant Prostate Cancer
2. Postoperative Surveillance of Upper Urinary Tract Urothelial Carcinoma
3. Management of the Small Renal Mass

The President’s dinner on Monday night was very well attended. Dr. Klotz teamed up with half of the other member of The Void as well as Dr. Andrew Hussy from Stratford, Ontario to form a proficient jazz quartet. Four CUA Scholars Awards were given that night. Congratulations to Dr. Robert Hamilton of University of Toronto, Dr. Geoff Gotto from the University of Calgary, Dr. Lysanne Campeau from McGill University and Dr. Andrew Fiefer aka @urologymd1, also of the University of Toronto. The major disappointment of the night for me personally was the late collapse in the Stanley Cup Finals of my beloved Boston Bruins.

The final day brought with it more great educational forums and abstract presentations. A highlight for me was an address given by Dr. James Orbinski, the co-founder of Dignitas International and former president of Medicins Sans Frontieres. It was a brilliant overview on humanitarianism, global health and our role as urologists and citizens of the developed world. I think we have a strong obligation to promote these themes in our specialty.

Finally #cua13 was the year that the use of Social Media arrived in full force at the CUA.

A twitter board was set up in the main meeting hall to provide a real-time update of the conversation.

A good WIFI connection, which has been an issue at other recent meetings, served everyone very well. With a growing number of Canadian urologists now on twitter (joining early adopters including @_theurologist_, @urooncmd, @qdtrinh and myself). As these analytics show, 78 people participated via twitter during the actual meeting.

Many international colleagues joined in and @mattbultitude even made the top 10 from across the pond.

This form of communication has greatly enhanced our ability to connect and exchange ideas with colleagues from around the world. All urologists would be well advised to explore this technology. A nice primer with a Canadian perspective by @cmaer on the use of social media and twitter for physicians can be found here. At the recent #USANZ13 meeting use of Social Media for Urology was part of the scientific agenda as this presentation by @declangmurphy illustrates. I would like to see the number of participants at #cua14 surpass 200!

Of course living in Toronto made leaving on Tuesday from Niagara Falls about as easy an escape as one can make from any meeting. As we approach summer (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) I wish everyone a safe and restful time and look forward to continuing to engage with colleagues over the next year.

Dr Rajiv K Singal is a Urologist at Toronto East General Hospital and Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto.
Follow him on Twitter @DrRKSingal

 

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Uro-oncology Highlights from #BAUS13

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The BAUS annual meeting in Manchester proved hugely enjoyable and notable for the high level of educational content and the quality of the speakers involved. There was a clear emphasis on the increasing role of the web and social media in urological education in the UK, and it was exciting to hear @prokarurol lay out his vision for the BJUI in this regard.

All subspecialties were well represented at BAUS, but I would like to focus particularly on urologic oncology, which was the subject of a number of excellent sessions.

Before that, I would like to show you some the Symplur data on social media traffic at #baus13:

This figure shows that 88 people people engaged with the #baus13 hashtag, many of many of whom were not in Manchester or even in the UK. Using the complex algoritim on their website, they calculate that the 556 tweets sent led to over 340,000 impressions in social media and other digital spaces. 

The traffic each day was impressive and the largest spike happened during the BJUI Social Media Course. Well done to all who tweeted from the meeting.

Professor Ben Lee from Tulane University, New Orleans gave two fascinating talks on Tuesday and Thursday morning regarding novel imaging techniques to facilitate uro-oncologic diagnosis and treatment. He quoted work from Dr. Peter Pinto from @theNCI demonstrating the utility of MRI-TRUS fusion targeted biopsies which detected cancer in 37% of patients with a negative initial TRUS, 11% of whom had high-grade disease. He also discussed novel imaging techniques that may enter uro-oncology practice in the future, including diffuse reflectance imaging and confocal microscopy with fluorescein staining. These techniques may allow intraoperative assessment of oncologic margins at the histological level, and there has been some success with this in the field of breast lumpectomy. One final innovation is the development of a patient-specific simulator for minimally invasive renal surgery. This allows a patient’s CT imaging to be reconstructed into a virtual 3d model, allowing the surgeon to practice that individual patient’s procedure prior to putting knife to skin for real.

Wednesday morning’s session, chaired by Tim O’Brien, aimed to address a variety of contemporary issues across urological oncology. Mr. Ed Rowe and Dr. Stephen Tolchard from Bristol presented their experience of CPEX testing prior to radical cystectomy. Their series demonstrated that CPEX testing was highly predictive of the risk of post-op complications, whereas ASA grade performed poorly. The ability to assess risk pre-operatively is clearly going to be vital to the publication of properly risk-adjusted individual surgeon outcomes, and CPEX testing may be a useful way to do this.

Professor Tom Treasure from UCL was asked to make sense of pulmonary metastasectomy. He pointed to the difficulty of selection bias towards fitter patients with low volume disease who are likely to survive for longer regardless of the effect of the surgery. Prospective randomised trials are needed, but lacking.

Professor Markus Graefen won widespread acclaim for his presentation of the merits of the very high volume radical prostatectomy practice at the Martini clinic in Hamburg. Particularly impressive was the use of continuous statistical monitoring of results, so that incremental technical improvements could be identified and disseminated between surgeons.

The morning session concluded with Dr. Arthur Grollman giving an intriguing account of how Aristolochia herb ingestion was finally established as the underlying cause for Balkan endemic nephropathy.

Wednesday saw another session organised by the Section of Oncology, this time chaired by Mr. Simon Brewster and focussing on active surveillance (AS) for prostate cancer. The session format made use of short, punchy presentations from a variety of speakers addressing controversies in patient selection and protocols for active surveillance.

Professor Graefen returned to discuss surgical and pathological outcomes following delayed RP after active surveillance. He quoted work led by Ruth Etzioni that used a simulation model derived from large active surveillance and radical prostatectomy cohorts to predict comparative outcomes for immediate and deferred treatment. Only very modest reductions in cancer-specific survival with deferred treatment were predicted, with treatment able to be deferred for a median of 6.4 years.

Those data relate to men with low-risk prostate cancer, but what about active surveillance for intermediate-risk disease? Dr. Parker argued the case for, pointing to only 2 of 88 men in the Royal Marsden series developing PSA failure, and one death. @declangmurphy argued for caution however, pointing to the fact that 12 of 92 men in this category from the Göteborg screening study had progressed to require androgen deprivation therapy at a median follow-up of 6 years, which has to be regarded as a poor outcome from surveillance. There was general agreement however that intermediate-risk cancers are a heterogeneous group and that more sophisticated risk stratification is required. Biomarkers may be part of the answer, and Professor Martin Gleave gave an eloquent update including the new multiple gene expression panels that are becoming commercially available in the US.

Further presentations addressed the topic of how to evaluate men entering active surveillance. Mr. Brewster stressed the pitfalls in relying on PSA kinetics alone, given that they perform poorly as a predictor of adverse pathology or recurrence following radical prostatectomy for progression on biopsy-based criteria. Mr. Declan Cahill strongly advocated transperineal template biopsies as routine prior to enrolment and for repeat biopsies, pointing to an upgrading rate of 1/3 at Guy’s where all patients entering AS are offered transperineal biopsies. Professor Freddy Hamdy made the case for avoiding routine repeat transrectal biopsies, given that changes in grade/volume may be an artefact of inadequate sampling, and therefore unhelpful. Finally, Professor Mark Emberton discussed the current role of imaging, making the case for pre-biopsy multiparametric MRI which can exclude tumour foci down to a size of 0.2cc with 95% accuracy and allows targeted biopsies as mentioned earlier. Whether a man with a raised PSA and a negative MRI can safely avoid a biopsy however, remains an open question. MRI may also prove to be a safe, non-invasive way to monitor tumours for progression on AS, reducing the need for repeat biopsy.

Professor Gleave then switched the focus to castrate-resistant disease in the Prostate Cancer UK Guest lecture. Along with a masterful overview of androgen receptor pathways and novel endocrine therapies, he urged us as urologists to get involved in the administration of these agents. Whilst presently utilised post-chemotherapy, they are likely to move into the pre-chemo setting and possibly even replace LHRH analogues for hormone-naïve patients.

Thursday saw an oncologically-orientated @BJUI sub-plenary session chaired by @prokarurol. @jdhdavis provided some great insights into the utility and technique of robotic extended pelvic lymph node dissection in prostate cancer. @qdtrinh gave a fascinating insight into the complexities of health services research, as well as outlining some recent data regarding complications of robotic vs. open radical prostatectomy. Finally, Professor Rob Pickard discussed the recent health technology assessment addressing the relative cost-effectiveness of robotic and laparoscopic radical prostatectomy. Whilst the model requires a number of assumptions, it seems clear that centralisation of robotic surgery into high-volume centres is much more likely to result in acceptable cost-effectiveness, not to mention improved outcomes for patients.

In summary this has been a fantastic BAUS meeting for uro-oncological topics in particular and one I have thoroughly enjoyed attending. It seems the future uro-oncologist will need to be able to interpret and integrate advanced imaging techniques into their practice, make sophisticated decisions about when and how to defer treatment for prostate cancer, utilise a broad range of non-surgical treatments, and provide the very best surgical outcomes in a new era of transparency. I’m looking forward to the challenges ahead.

Ben Jackson
ST7 in Urological Surgery, Royal Derby Hospital
@Ben_L_jackson

 

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BAUS 2013 Conference Report – Day 1-2

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This year’s BAUS Annual Meeting was held in Manchester’s International Convention Centre and attended by almost 1200 delegates from all over the world. There has been a lot of anticipation this year following great attendance and atmosphere at the USANZ13, EAU13 and AUA13; much of the success and excitement coming from those conferences was echoed by the delegates on Twitter.

This was my first BAUS conference and I was particularly excited about my place on a urology skills course using fresh frozen cadavers, along with teaching sessions on Paediatric Urology and Urogenital emergencies and a “Walk with Experts” session around the academic posters.

The conference started with 3 parallel sessions on Monday morning:

  • Andrology and Genito-Urethral surgery key updates were discussed with a joint academic session in the afternoon to include the latest basic science research into Peyronie’s pathophysiology, artificial sperm, post-prostatectomy ED and genital tissue Bioengineering.
  • The BAUS Female, neurological and Urodynamic Urology Section focused mainly on the latest updates for urological fistulae, with other Keynote addresses over the following day covering mesh erosions and recurrent stress incontinence.
  • The Academic Session consisted of presentations from the six best abstracts submitted to BAUS this year. As our chairman Professor Dasgupta pointed out, all these presentations were based on clinical research rather than basic science. Is this a bias towards the clinical or is the standard of clinical work higher? The session finished with the awarding of the prestigious BJUI John Blandy Prize, received by the best and most cited BJUI article over the last two years. This year Dr Jérémie Haffner from France won the prize and £5000, for his work titled [the] “Role of MRI for Prostate Cancer Screening”, which he presented in fluent English.

In the afternoon the Exhibition arena provides the opportunity to see some of the latest innovations from the pharmaceutical and equipment industry representatives, and even have a play with 3D laparoscopy. However most trainees are understandably drawn to the Da Vinci stand where a robotic console is the main attraction. Delegates got the chance to use the robot to test their basic skills. 

My walk with the experts was really informative; each group consisted of approximately six trainees and two consultants. It was comfortable to ask questions and really maximised how much you can learn from the posters.

Day two started with a great update on laparoscopy, followed by the BAUS President, Mr Adrian Joyce, who gave his official address and awards as follows;

  • St. Peter’s Medal was awarded to Mr Malcolm Lucas, Swansea, UK.
  • St. Paul’s Medal was awarded to Professor Glenn Preminger, Durham, USA.
  • The BAUS Gold Medal was awarded to Mr Justin Vale, London, UK.

Social media is increasingly present in professional conferences allowing worldwide coverage and dissemination of all the conference content. Recent success was publicised from other Urology conferences, see other BJUI blogs.

BAUS has embraced this emerging technology and the “uro-twitterati” by establishing a twitter hashtag #BAUS13 and having updates throughout the conference. Furthermore a sold-out teaching course on Social Media run by Associate Professor Declan Murphy (@declangmurphy) and Professor Dasgupta (@prokarurol), was held at BAUS this year, which must surely be one of the first at any surgical conference? The session aimed to raise awareness of social media and advise delegates on the safe and best uses of social media in light of the recently drawn GMC guidance on the issue. Members were also helped by the unveiling of a set of BJUI guidelines on social media.

A range of experience was shown by the group, with about 50% using Twitter and other social media professionally at the present time.

Teaching new things in new ways

The BJUI supports BAUS regarding social media and demonstrated their rapid uptake of social media by posting the highest “influence” of any urology journal with a Klout score of 56.
 

During the conference BAUS president Mr Adrian Joyce, blogged his response to a newspaper article demonstrating that BAUS are developing an interest in social media and are using the expertise of their friends at BJUI to help them get their message out. It is an exciting time for all and I think we will see much more activity in social media in urology.

Other changes for the future were raised at the BURST session, where simulation in Urology training was discussed. Simulation will be used more in training and may not just include surgical skills but extend to non-technical skills including leadership, and working with distraction and disruptions.  

The conference has a great educational element, produced by Miss Tamsin Greenwell, with numerous small skills and teaching sessions running on every day of the conference. This allows every delegate to tailor their experience to their interests and needs. In particular the skills session gave us the rare chance for realistic surgical simulation using fresh frozen cadavers, with significant sponsorship at a fraction of the cost. These courses ranged from PCNL access and TURP to basic cystoscopy, ureteric stenting and supra-pubic insertion.

The BAUS social programme is rightly famous, with great events planned every night. The main event from Day 1 was the regional football competition, which was again competitive and well attended with congratulations to the Newcastle Trainees for winning the Cup.

With so much to do and see I am sure that many had a completely different experience to me and I am already looking forward to next year.

Dr Nishant Bedi is a Core Surgical (Urology) Trainee in the West Midlands Deanery, UK.
@nishbedi

 

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BAUS gears up for huge Annual Meeting

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We are now in the last stages of preparation for this year’s British Association of Urologists (BAUS) Annual Meeting which takes place from 17th-20th June 2013 at Manchester Central.

This year’s meeting features a long list of distinguished International speakers including the following:

 

 

  • Professor Elspeth McDougall, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
  • Dr Paul Turek, The Turek Clinic, San Francisco, USA
  • Professor Simon Horenblas, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam
  • Dr Gerard Henry, Regional Urology, Shreveport, USA
  • Professor Dirk De Ridder, University Hospitals KU Leuven, Belgium
  • Professor Roger Dmochowski, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA
  • Professor Benjamin R. Lee, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, USA
  • Associate Professor Declan Murphy, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia. Associate Editor (Social Media), BJUI.
  • Professor Glenn Preminger, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, USA
  • Professor Augustine Mallya, KCMC, Tanzania
  • Professor Markus Graefen, Martini-Clinic, Prostate Cancer Center, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany
  • Dr Arthur Grollman, Stony Brook University, New York, USA
  • Professor Martin Gleave, University of British Columbia, Canada
  • Professor Chandru Sundaram, Indiana University Health, Indianapolis, USA
  • Dr A Brent Eastman, President of the American College of Surgeons
  • Associate Professor John W Davis, Associate Editor, Urologic Oncology, BJU International & The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, USA
  • Dr Quoc-Dien Trinh, Associate Editor, BJU International & University of Montreal Health Center, Canada
  • Professor Ramakrishna Venkatesh, University of Kentucky, Lexington, USA

These will all join with the leading figures in British urology to overview all of the hot topics in urology this year. We also have the best up and coming urologists presenting their research in our poster and plenary sessions throughout the week. The BAUS Office of Education have put together a very busy programme with 23 Teaching and Skills Courses running throughout BAUS week.

It all kicks off on Monday 17th with the Academic Urology subsection, the Annual Meetings of the Section of Andrology and the Section of FNUU (Female, Neurological and Urodynamic Urology) and the BJUI session for the Best Paper at BAUS 2013 10.00 to 11.00. All the subsections have an excellent programme with a tremendously varied agenda throughout the first day of the meeting.

Highlights for Tuesday include:

  • Point counterpoint sessions on working with industry in the morning and current urological conundrums in the afternoon
  • “Optimising the human mind” –  BAUS guest lecture from Steve Peters Consultant Psychiatrist who works with the national British cycling team   
  • Leading  Lights session: Tuesday pm, a chance for the up and coming scientific trainees to show their wares.

Wednesday highlights include:

  • The Urology Foundation lecture to be given by John Kelly 12.00-12.30. Bladder cancer State-of-the-Art
  • Prostate cancer update on national audit and NICE guidelines Wednesday am
  • SURG/TUF session on Wednesday afternoon concentrating on simulation and fellowships
  • Prostate Cancer UK guest lecture given by Martin Gleave 15.30 Wednesday

Thursday highlights include:

  • BAUS/AUA joint programme on minimally invasive renal surgery followed by the RCS Edinburgh Inaugural Guest lecture from Brent Eastman, President of the American College of Surgeons
  • Followed by a BJUI sub-plenary session  and BJUI guest lecture all on the Thursday morning.
  • Final session will be IBUS with four high profile speakers from the USA to finish of the meeting by 14.00

We are also presenting six satellite sessions throughout the week varying from prostate cancer, erectile dysfunction through to functional urology. Full details of the programme are at www.baus.org.uk/AGMpages/programme.

In addition, BAUS presents a number of prestigious awards each year to recognise individuals from within the UK and overseas who have made important contributions to urology and to recognise outstanding achievements. Here is a run down of awards to be presented during the upcoming Annual Meeting:

St Peter’s Medal 2013.

Citation by: Mr Mark Speakman, Vice-President of BAUS

Presented to: Mr Malcolm Lucas, Morriston Hospital, Swansea

St Paul’s Medal 2013

Citation by: Mr Adrian Joyce, President of BAUS

Presented to: Professor Glenn Preminger, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, USA

BAUS Gold Medal 2013

Citation by: Mr Jonathan Ramsay, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London

Presented to: Mr Justin Vale, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London

Karl Storz Harold Hopkins Golden Telescope Award

Presented to: Mr Paul Jones, Morriston Hospital, Swansea

BAUS Certificates of Distinction

Presented to:

Mrs Laura Knight, GlaxoSmithKline

Mr Richard Lawrence, Olympus Medical

Keith Yeates Memorial Medal and The Shackman Prize

Presented by: Professor Sam McClinton, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary

On behalf of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

Presented to: Miss Tina Rashid, University College Hospital, London

The SURG/STORZ Silver Cystoscope Award to the UK Trainer of the Year

Introduction and presentation by Mr Ben Grey, Central Manchester NHS Foundation Trust

Presented to Mr Kieran O’Flynn, Salford Royal Foundation Trust

We will also be tweeting out highlights and information from our new Twitter account @BAUSurology. Follow the hashtag #baus13 for latest news and highlights and thanks to the BJUI Social Media team for helping with our social media activity. We look forward to welcoming you to Manchester!

Andy Thorpe

Mr Andy Thorpe, Urologist, Honorary Secretary British Association of Urological Surgeons, Scientific Convenor of BAUS Annual Scientific Meeting

BAUS Honorary Secretary Mr Andy Thorpe and BAUS President Mr Adrian Joyce preview some of the highlights of the forthcoming BAUS Annual Meeting

 

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You are Not Connected to the Internet: Seeking Stable WiFi at the Modern Conference

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Urologists the world over have at last settled back into their rhythms after congregating en masse in San Diego, California for the American Urological Association Annual Meeting. While I hadn’t expected to escape balmy Ontario for crisp breezes in Southern California, the setting was an excellent one.

This year’s AUA meeting had all the hallmarks of years past – heaving throngs of AUA-branded-faux-leather-bagged urologists speed-walking between sessions in the enormous SD Convention Centre, bleary-eyed sufferers burning away their respective fogs with espresso in the cavernous Exhibit Hall, and plenary sessions packed to the gills to hear the latest and greatest. One pernicious tradition was unfortunately manifest again, however, in the form of unreliable wireless internet access in the conference hall and ancillary venues.

Modern conferences and conference centres (where (ironically) the latest technologies and scientific advances are presented) seem to have barricaded themselves from the digital world the modern conference-goer inhabits. This may at first seem inconsequential, as the sequestration and forced attention might keep the focus on the presented data. In truth, an entire communication meta-layer, that of the conversations, opinions and dissemination created by social media activity, are needlessly compromised.

As has been stated repeatedly in social media circles, this year’s annual meeting was a bonanza of twitter activity at the #aua13 hashtag, with over 4000 tweets sent from 468 users during the meeting proper. The recent European Association of Urology meeting in Milan was similarly well subscribed, with almost 1800 tweets from 251 users.

It seems universal at urology (and doubtless other disciplines’) meetings that some of the earliest twitter activity centers around the pain of spotty or absent wifi. To wit:

 – from #uro12 (AUA Atlanta):

 

 – from #eau13 (EAU Milan):

 

 – from #aua13 (AUA San Diego):

These are but a few of the dozens of agonized tweets based on weak, spotty or absent wifi, and for each there is doubtless a dozen, fifty, a hundred more people in the same building steaming with the same frustrations. International delegates, loathe to “roam” outside their home data plans, are perhaps the most handicapped. One imagines the conference centre tech team testing their seemingly robust signal in an empty room, devoid of the hundreds or thousands of devices queuing for bandwidth space once the meeting is in full swing. And let’s not forgive the conference-adjacent hotels that host dozens of ancillary meetings, such as the well-attended Society of Urologic Oncology meeting, each year in advance of the AUA proper. Typically there is a total absence of available wifi in these conference halls. In 2013, the mind boggles at this omission (on the part of organizers as well as the hotels).

Certainly the modern conference centre and the modern meeting must see beyond their own walls, and address the modern realities of communication. The reach of social media, and indeed the basic need of busy attendees to connect with their practices, lives and colleagues make this all the more imperative. Relative to all the other logistic feats that underpin a conference, building in extra bandwidth (with redundancy to avoid catastrophe) should be a simple infrastructure and expenditure issue, well within the means of the centre to predict and to deploy.

 A brief set of expectations for the modern conference centre’s wireless internet:

  1. Conference wifi must be available to all who wish to access it, when and where they wish to do so. Hotels are not exempt if they host parts of the meeting. Wifi is no longer a perk or a luxury.
  2. Login should be simple and able to be performed in the native settings of the users’ devices, rather than the agonizing experience of web- or browser-based login.
  3. Requiring repeated logins when re-entering rooms or buildings is excruciating and anathema to the speed of communication and discussion that define social media. One formal login per device per meeting.
  4. The ubiquity of mobile devices may require a building retrofit or construction of stations to facilitate the ability of delegates to charge these devices.

Until these conditions are met, associations, conferences and conference centres will be forced by their own inertia to stifle the full potential of the meetings they host. Here’s hoping that the volume of our discontent is heard by organizers, and suitable guarantees are established and met as conditions of hosting our meetings.

Mike Leveridge is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Urology and Oncology at Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada. @_theurologist_

 

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The BJUI and BAUS join forces at AUA in San Diego

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For the first time, the BJUI and our friends at the British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS), joined forces at the Annual Meeting of the American Urological Association to stage a satellite session focusing on some interesting areas of urology. While both BAUS and BJUI have long had strong relations and have worked together on many occasions, this was the first time we had an opportunity to present a full afternoon of plenary content at the AUA.

This year’s AUA took place in beautiful San Diego, a very popular destination for delegates, even those travelling all the way from the UK. The convention centre is very conveniently located and is state-of-the-art. The adjoining Marriott hotel hosts many of the satellite events and it was here on Sunday 5th May 2013 that the joint BAUS/BJUI session took place. We attracted over 200 delegates in the face of tremendous competition from parallel sessions and had a wonderful atmosphere all afternoon.

Prokar Dasgupta excited about this session at AUA Annual Meeting 2013

Part one was chaired by BAUS President Adrian Joyce and featured state-of-the-art lectures from Prof Tony Mundy, Dr Tamsin Greenwell, Dr Craig Rogers, Mr Ben Challacombe, Mr Simon Brewster , Dr Philippa Cheetham and Prof Mark Emberton.

The second session was opened by BJUI Chairman Dr David Quinlan who gave a great introduction before handing over to BJUI Editor-in-Chief Prokar Dasgupta who Chaired the session. This was a fascinating session which combined state-of-the-art addresses from well known BJUI editors/contributors Dr John Davis, Dr Peter Gilling and Dr David Ralph, along with an exciting overview of social media and digital publishing by Prokar Dasgupta, Casey Ng and myself. The future of publishing is certainly not in paper and attendees at this session were given a wonderful preview of how urology publishing might look in the future.

The joint session finished with the presentation of the BJUI Coffey–Krane Prize, which was accepted by Dr Christian Pavlovich on behalf of his team for their paper Impact of surgical technique (open vs laparoscopic vs robotic-assisted) on pathological and biochemical outcomes following radical prostatectomy: an analysis using propensity score matching. The Prize was presented by the great Dr Coffey who gave a humorous overview after his warm introduction by Dr Quinlan.

Dr Christian Pavlovich receives the Coffey–Krane Prize 2013 from Dr Donald Coffey,
Prof Prokar Dasgupta and Mr David Quinlan

Attendees enjoyed socializing over drinks following the session and toasted the strong relationship between BAUS, the BJUI and the AUA.

We look forward to similar conjoined events in the future and are particularly looking forward to the BJUI supporting the forthcoming BAUS Annual Meeting in Manchester from 17–20th June 2013.

 

Declan Murphy BJUI Associate Editor

Follow Declan on Twitter @declangmurphy

 

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AUA Blog – Day 3 and 4 – Monday and Tuesday

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The American Urological Association (AUA) 2013 national meeting remains in full swing in beautiful San Diego. Not sure what is going on with the weather (two days in a row of rain?), but plenty of great things going on inside the convention center.

The “main event” on Monday was Dr. Ballentine Carter’s presentation of the AUA’s new Guidelines on the Early Detection of Prostate Cancer . Dr. Carter spoke to a packed house (the Fire Marshall was turning people away!).

For those who missed the talk, the AUA added a second session on Tuesday. Further comments from the AUA can be found here. Whatever your opinion regarding the new guidelines, and there were many prominent urologists who voiced their concerns about the guidelines, urologists will need to be able to speak intelligently to patients and primary care physicians. In the same session, Dr. Michael Cookson gave the AUA Guideline presentation on castration resistant prostate cancer which seemed better received than the PSA Guidance which certainly got many urologists hot and bothered.

On Monday, the Young Urologists Forum focused on the business aspect of urology (something I heard very little about in training), with informative talks by Dr. Raju Thomas, Dr. Koushik Shaw and Dr. Neil Baum. Thanks to Dr. Mike Ost and the YU Committee for putting together a great program.

Speaking of young urologists, the Southeastern section took home first prize in the Second Annual Residents Bowl, besting the Western section in the finals on Monday.

Southeastern Section of AUA claim the honours in the Annual Residents Bowl

The Monday plenary session included discussions on the contemporary uses of neuromodulation and the management of iatrogenic ureteral injury. BJUI Editor-in-Chief Dr. Prokar Dasgupta, gave an informative lecture on the current applications of botulinum toxin in the lower urinary tract. Prostate cancer made it into the Endocrine Forum on Monday, with Dr. Scardino and Dr. Klotz debating the treatment of men with low risk prostate cancer. Jumping ahead, a similar debate was held during the Tuesday plenary between Dr. Carroll and Dr. Tewari with roles reversing somewhat as Dr Tewari argued the case for surveillance while Dr Carroll took us through some of the pitfalls.

Also on Monday, Dr. Vincent Laudone gave late-breaking news regarding the randomized trial between open and robotic radical cystectomy at MSKCC. Bottom line – no difference was found regarding oncologic or perioperative outcomes. In particular, the robotic approach did not reduce the complication rate which remained at about 60% in both arms. Cost difference, which seems to be on everyone’s mind, was not addressed. Other trials between open and robotic cystectomy remain ongoing and the jury appears out here.

Dr. Christopher Kane moderated a session debating the use of simulation in robotic surgery between Drs. Sundaram (pro) and Nadler (con). Dr. Kane concluded the debate by stating that basic robotic training is important but limited by cost and duty hour restrictions. In addition, further studies are needed to determine if virtual robotic training actually helps performance.

One of the more contentious areas of prostate cancer, HIFU and focal therapy, received much attention during various poster sessions this year. Abstract #553 reported five-year oncological outcomes following HIFU in the UK in over 500 patients. Disappointingly, 38% of men who had a biopsy had residual cancer. About one third of patients had androgen deprivation therapy upfront with a further 30% requiring salvage treatment. The authors described the disease-free outcomes as “reasonable”. Abstract #1356 from the same authors reported outcomes in 110 patients undergoing focal therapy using the same HIFU technology. Again, 38% of patients had a positive biopsy. Both of these papers provoked much reaction from the floor and across social media. These are experimental interventions which should only be undertaken in appropriate trials.

The aging US population (10,000 people turn 65 every day and will for the next 15 years) coupled with the average age of urologists (mid-50’s!) will create a serious manpower shortage over the next several years. As an illustration, abstract #153 reported that 14 counties in Oregon have zero urologists and men in those counties are more likely to get bladder cancer.

From Monday, abstract #1041 (awarded best poster for MP40), confirmed what habitual coffee drinkers already know – that high dosage coffee increases LUTS and urine volume compared to decaffeinated coffee or water. Dr. Tom Walsh and colleagues were awarded best poster (abstract #1241) for MP46 for evaluating a smartphone application to assess the penile deformity in men with Peyronie’s disease. Another best of session – Dr. Penson (@urogeek) and colleagues reported that men with prostate cancer today (CAESER) have more baseline dysfunction that men 20 years ago (PCOS) – abstract #449. There were many more great abstracts out there…too many to list in this blog.

The Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand hosted a great reception on Monday night. Several prominent uro-twitterati (including yours truly) and other urologic “heavy hitters” were in attendance.

Thanks to the Aussies and Kiwis for a wonderful event. Strangely, they were not serving Foster’s at the event.

Tuesday’s plenary included several sessions on the management of both low and high-risk prostate cancer. The main auditorium was absolutely packed for what was one of the best sessions of the week.

Dr Hein Van Poppel, Secretary-General Adjunct of the European Association of Urology (EAU), delivered an outstanding plenary on the management of high-risk localised prostate cancer. His clear message – surgery should always be considered first with radiotherapy and androgen deprivation therapy later if required – was very well received. Dr Ed Messing introduced a fantastic session on molecular markers in prostate cancer led by Dr’s Alan Partin, Dan Lin and Theo Van der Kwast. Key messages here were that the Phi test already has a role in clinical practice; PCA3/TEMPRSS2ERG fusion is emerging; and for sure, we will see genetic markers in clinical practice very soon. In fact the UCSF group generated a lot of media headlines on Tuesday evening when the commercialization of their genetic test was announced ahead of its presentation by Dr Cooperberg on Wednesday am.

So many other sessions it’s hard to know what to choose from. A mention of Dr Joel Nelson’s Critical Discussion session where he led Dr Reiter and Dr Brooks through the options for patients with progressive prostate cancer. This was a good way to present the key data in an engaging manner.

The AUA Guideline presentations on follow-up care for renal cancer and radiation after prostatectomy were given by Dr. Sherri Donat and Dr. Richard Valicenti, respectively. In addition, Drs. McVary and Kaplan debated the use of alpha blockers versus PDE5 inhibitors for BPH/LUTS.

Other highlights from Tuesday from the land of stones included abstract #1816 – people are 67% less likely to file short-term disability when treated with medical expulsive therapy versus ureteroscopy. A higher physical activity level improves the results of lithotripsy (#1824). In an earlier abstract (#67), physical activity was protected against stones in women. SO…get moving people! Lastly, 2 groups developed nomograms to predict stone-free rates after PCNL (abstracts #1526 and 1532). Thanks to Peter Steinberg and Michelle Semins (my stone peeps) for vetting abstracts.

Social media and twitter continued to have a significant impact at the meeting, with an increasing number of tweets every day. With so much going on at the AUA (seemingly at the same time), twitter provides an easy way for urologists to digitally multitask and get more out of the conference. Check out the metrics via Symplur.com which show huge social media activity (5.7m digital impressions) and also shows the BJUI and its team/contributors are among the top influencers once again.

 

#aua13 was the #1 trending conference over the past few days! The use of social media will only expand over the coming years, and urologists need to stay “ahead of the curve”. Perhaps the @Americanurol will offer a Plenary session on Social Media next year? I can honestly say that I got more out of the meeting this year, largely thanks to the use of twitter.

The AUA responded to a social media campaign and installed twitter-boards around the convention centre. Great to see the AUA engaging so well in social media.

Thanks to the AUA and San Diego for a great meeting! Looking forward to seeing everyone next year in Orlando. Until then, I encourage everyone to participate in the International Journal club on twitter (@iurojc) and to bring a friend!

 

Dr. Matthew Hayn

Follow Matt on Twitter @matthayn

 

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AUA Blog – Highlight of Day 1 and 2

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Greetings from San Diego, California! The annual meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) is underway with over 15,000 attendees converging on this beautiful city from around the world. As I arrived at Pearson International Airport in Toronto on Friday and made my way through security I ran into roughly twenty of my colleagues from in and around Toronto getting ready to board the same plane. Canadians have attended this meeting in droves for as long as I can remember. Arriving in San Diego was easy with nice access to the city from the airport. After checking into hotel the first order of business was to register, which was also easy at least on Friday.

 

As I arrived on Friday it was clear that the meeting was already in full swing. A variety of research programs were underway including a Basic Science Symposium that explored the underlying role of inflammation and fibrosis in urological disorders.

 

Most noteworthy and newsworthy on Friday was the AUA news release of its new Guidelines on the Early Detection of Prostate Cancer. These will be sure to generate a lot of discussion. In summary:

 

  • Screening under age 40 is not recommended
  • Routine screening of men between age 40 and 54 at average risk is not recommended
  • For those aged 55-69, a shared decision to screen is advocated with a PSA drawn perhaps every two years.
  • Routine screening is not recommended after the age of 70.

 

These guidelines will be formally presented during Monday’s plenary session. The full document can be found here. It is clear to me that our challenge as urologists to properly council our patients in light of these new guidelines will only increase when you consider some of the headlines in the media. What do you think of these new Guidelines? Comments below please?

 

The first full day of scheduled activity was Saturday. A variety of sections and societies held meetings on this day.  A number of courses were offered that continue to be well attended. This year a course pass was adopted that allowed individuals to get into most things available – a popular addition for AUA delegates. Highlights from the first day included:

  • The Engineering in Urology Section of the Endourology Society, highlighting advances in imaging as well as new robotic prototypes being developed from around the world. It will be interesting to see if any of these strange devices make it into the OR.
  • The Society of Urological Oncology was extremely well attended as usual. Dr Urs Studer delivered the Dr. W Whitmore Memorial Lecture and suggested that after more than 25 years in the PSA era a major re-think of how we treat prostate cancer is required.

 

Another very popular event was the live surgery session, which ran all day on Saturday. Highlights including a virtuoso robotic radical cystectomy with orthotopic ileal neobladder formation performed by Dr Indy Gill.  

                 

 

The role of robotic surgery to treat a variety of urological conditions is clearly expanding. For those of us in Canada the time is now to figure out how we will obtain, deploy, credential and manage this technology in our own publically funded healthcare system

 

The first plenary sessions began on Sunday. With the weather turning a little (I thought it never rains in Southern California?!) it made it easier to go indoors and listen to the talks and lectures inside. Highlight from plenary session one included a State-of-the Art Lecture of Technology’s role in the Future Management of Erectile Dysfunction by Dr Run Wang. Mention was made of nanotechnology and tissue engineering but perhaps the most intriguing near-term advance may be the advent of a smart phone app for operation of penile prostheses (yes it’s true!). Drs. Allen Seftel and Serge Carrier debated the role of the urologist in screening men with erectile dysfunction for cardiac disease. There was agreement on the link to cardiac disease but debate remains as to how many urologists will requisition stress tests. The second plenary session included an AUA Health policy update by Dr. David Penson and review by Dr. Peggy Pearle of the recertification process for urologists for the American Board of Urology.

As always, tremendous scientific efforts were on display at multiple poster and podium sessions. Predictably there was far too much for any one individual to entirely see. The discussion on Twitter via #AUA13 did allow for some ‘reporting’ at sites that I could not attend. A tremendous amount of work focusing on screening and active surveillance was clearly evident as well as the increasing use of new imaging techniques for managing these patients were evident. An afternoon session on HIFU and focal therapy left many people scratching their heads as to the utility of these modalities. The 47 % positive biopsy rate for HIFU was particularly disappointing. The best (or at least most entertaining) editorial of this session can be found in the twitter feed of @daviesbj.

 

 

In the science and technology exhibition area a tremendous presence from industry was again noted. Again, as a Canadian I am a little unsure as to how we will manage to incorporate all of this new technology when our hospital system is already strained. The Second Annual Residents Bowl narrowed down the field to two finalists, from the Western and South-eastern Sections. They will faceoff Monday at 1230 for the final. Finally the first Chief Residents’ debate highlighted that the future of our great speciality is very bright under the stewardship of these incredible young people.

 

For me a significant change to this meeting from past meetings is the use of social media to network, distribute ideas and scale down what often is a very large meeting into something that seems more accessible and local. The use of these multiple platforms has transformed the way we attend meetings. The recent meetings of the European Association of Urology (#eau13) and Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand (#USANZ13) highlight what can be achieved when this technology is used. Those not attending can participate actively. This has created an international participation in meetings in a way I have never seen before. The live twitter boards that you see around the convention centre here in San Diego, which are helping to spread the word, got their inspiration from these recent meetings.

 

 

A few individuals such as @daviesb and @DrHWoo and @tdave deserve credit for insisting that these boards become of feature of the 2013 meeting. Well done to AUA for taking a proactive approach to social media this year and for listening to your members. The hashtag to follow is #AUA13. I would encourage all to participate in this community. You will be amazed at how easily you can find out about what’s really going on at this meeting and also check in at venues that you cannot otherwise physically attend. You can see who are the leading influencers on twitter at #aua13 by checking out updated metrics via Symplur.  You can see from this link that the chatter is building daily. I look forward to seeing a similar picture at #CUA13 when the Canadian Urological Association meets in June.

 

The use of Social Media will rapidly increase in scope and become a necessary part of communication within our Urological meetings. The AUA (@Americanurol) has recently established a committee to establish guidelines help grow its use for AUA members. Sign up for an account and dive in. It is highly engaging, somewhat addictive, very informative and always fun!

 

The BJUI hosted a great event, The BJUI Social Media Awards, for all of the early adopters of social media on Saturday evening. In particular this group has networked and communicated regularly over the last six months and ‘meet’ once a month to run a journal club on twitter using the hashtag #urojc. They self-identify as urotwitterati. The BJUI
arranged for many of us to meet for the first time by hosting the #BJUISoMeAwards. It was a great event and will be fully featured in a separate blog this week along with details of the well-attended BAUS/BJUI Session that took place on Sunday afternoon and included the awarding of the Coffey-Krane Prize.

 

Lastly on Sunday,  by the security guards in Sacramento CA, we were treated to a spectacular Reception on board the USS Midway, a first opportunity for most of us to go on board a gigantic aircraft carrier and see some wonderful aircraft. The flight simulators were only for those who had not had a few beers already and who could tolerate the high G forces! Well done again to AUA for this excellent event.

 

 

Monday’s plenary session will include some very interesting debate around nephrolithiasis and I look forward to a Town Hall led by Dr. Ralph Clayman debating Robots as a possible harbinger of Surgeon Obsolescence. New guidelines on castration resistant prostate cancer will also be presented. Stay tuned for further updates from @Matthayn on Wednesday

  

Dr Rajiv Singal

Urological Cancer & Robotics Lead, Toronto East General Hospital, Canada

Follow him on Twitter at @DrRKSingal

 

Read Day 3 & 4 Highlights here

 

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Blog report from USANZ ASM, Melbourne

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Dr Marni Basto & Dr Sarah Wilkinson

G’day from the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Urological Society of Australia & New Zealand, easily identified globally this week using its hashtag, #USANZ13. This year’s meeting has taken place in Melbourne – the city of lane-way lattes, sport, lifestyle and culinary delights!  It has certainly been a jam-packed four days of academic content led by a stellar International Faculty – 23 key opinion leaders from every corner of the globe covering every aspect of urology. Almost 1000 delegates were registered and were joined by an additional 250 delegates from the Asia Pacific Prostate Society who convened their 3rd Annual Scientific Meeting as a conjoined event. There were a lot of urologists in Melbourne!

This year’s Annual Scientific Meeting convened by Professor Damien Bolton and Associate Professor Nathan Lawrentschuk (@Lawrentschuk) kicked off with an emotional Oration by Moira Kelley discussing her inspiring work with Mother Teresa and flying sick children to Western countries to undergo lifesaving medical treatment.  Tears were soon dried however as USANZ acknowledged Professor Anthony Mundy with an honorary membership for his profound achievements and long association with USANZ. The welcome reception provided a great opportunity for delegates to mingle and try the rich assortment of wines Australia has to offer.

Visiting American Professor James Eastham was full of praise for the manner in which approximately 1 in 6 men in Australia and New Zealand are managed by active surveillance compared to around 10% of eligible patients in the US.  Professor Eastham from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York went to press saying “Australia and New Zealand are among the best places in the world to be diagnosed with prostate cancer”.

Certainly active surveillance, focal therapy and the use of MRI in prostate cancer were hot topics of debate throughout the meet.  Prof Eastham’s was not alone in his reservations for focal therapy stating his view that “it should be considered experimental”.  Others on the International faculty such as Professor Mark Emberton argued in its defence in the appropriate setting. Dr Emberton also delivered the BJUI Lecture on “Best practice in prostate cancer imaging”. Other BJUI highlights included Editor-in-Chief Prof Prokar Dasgupta who delivered a wonderful overview of the “Scientific Advances in Robotic Surgery” as well as delivering some excellent tips for how to get published during the Surgical Authorship session. This very well attended session also featured Dr Annette Fenner, Editor-in-Chief of Nature Reviews Urology (and a prolific tweeter), who gave a masterful overview of how to write a review paper. BJUI Chairman Dr David Quinlan, challenged our assumptions by asking “Are men pursuing sexual function following radical prostatectomy”. Professor Dasgupta also announced the inaugural BJUI Global Prize Winner, accepted by Dr Yen-Chuan Ou.

The @BJUIJournal and its editors @prokarurol, @declangmurphy & @drhwoo were once again leading influencers throughout this year’s meeting showing form consistent with #EAU13 depicted by the metrics supplied by Symplur (@healthhashtags).  Around 135 participants got involved in the #USANZ13 discussion including many from around the world who joined the conversation.

A special mention to Toronto’s Dr Rajiv Singal (@drrksingal) who even made the list of top 10 influencers! And to our many other Twitter-mates who joined the conversation from all over the world.

It is safe to say social media, or what the Urology twitterati refer to as ‘SoMe’, has now cemented a definitive and purposeful place in engaging and reaching out to the International Urology community.  @Urologymeeting was the official handle with tweets also coming from the primary @USANZUrology official account.  The #USANZ13 hashtag was an obvious option and it appears despite last year’s AUA meeting hashtag controversy with the use of #Uro12 instead of #AUA12, we have now firmly set the hashtags for Urology meets around the world; #EAU13, #USANZ13, #AUA13, #BAUS13, #ERUS13, #ACU13 etc.

A select group of our young talented research and clinical registrars were challenged at the podium battling for the prestigious Keith Kirkland and Villis Marshall prizes.  These were awarded to Dr Isaac Thyer and Dr Sandra Elmer respectively at the Gala evening.  Located at the elegant Grand Ball Room at the Regent Theatre, the Gala evening was certainly an event to behold.  Professor Stephen Ruthven, current President of USANZ handed over the reins to Dr David Winkle who will hold the post for the next two years.

For the first time a dedicated “Social Media & Education” session was chaired by @declangmurphy and @drhwoo with presentations from some of the well known Aussie Uro-twitterati; @isaacthagasamy, and @wilko3040. The SoMe session saw our session chairs with their heads deep in their computers, ipads and iphones creating traffic Internationally with the USA, Canada, the UK and mainland Europe, while monitoring the Tweetchat stream. This traffic generated the largest peak of the conference as seen in the tweet activity graph with close to 400 tweets in the hour.

BJUI Associate Editor Declan Murphy wowed the crowd by abandoning Powerpoint in favour of Prezi to showcase the social media landscape. By way of emphasis, he demonstrated the utility of social media by Tweeting a link to his Prezi which at the time of writing had been viewed by well over 200 people (most from outside Australia). Social media revolution!

We are already looking forward to USANZ 2014 which will take place in Brisbane from 16-19th March 2014. Put the date in your diary – fun to follow on social media but much better in real life!

 

Marni Basto is  a Uro-Oncology Research Fellow at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia

Twitter: @Dr MarniqueB

Sarah Wilkinson is a post-doctoral research fellow at Monash University, Melbourne. She is interested in how the prostate tumour microenvironment can be targeted as a therapeutic treatment for prostate cancer.

Twitter: @wilko3040

 

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EAU Annual Meeting 2013 – Final thoughts

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The BJUI team was most impressed with this year’s EAU Annual Congress which has just concluded in Milan. The scientific content was excellent – topical plenary sessions from key opinion leaders; lively poster sessions; superb video sessions and very high-quality courses run by the European School of Urology. The EAU are to be congratulated on consistently raising the bar with the quality of this meeting which is reflected in the huge delegate numbers again this year.

The last two days had a number of highlights, some of which we summarise here:

  • The Plenary on lower urinary tract symptoms – management of side-effects included a wide variety of presentations including an specific talks on new potential drug treatments which certainly wouldn’t be considered main-stream at the moment. It will be interesting to monitor how trials with beta-3 agonists, botulinum toxin and PDE5 inhibitors go over the next few years for this potentially huge market. Professor Marberger finished the session discussing if TURP remains the gold standard for BPO. The answer may be that it is not, although it remains the ‘reference’ to which all other treatments must match. It is interesting to see how delegates reacted to this on Twitter such as Dr GomezSancha who tweeted to his 251 followers:

 

We are not sure if all would agree but we do enjoy seeing the debate bouncing around the Twittersphere!

  • Prevention of infections – chaired by T.E. Bjerklund Johansen, this plenary updated us on resistance to antibiotics which is increasingly a problem and has led the lay press to describe this as an Apocalypse and more recently as big a risk as terrorism. Dr Kahlmeter then discusses the implications for urology in this video interview with the EAU. This is a highly topical area and we are pleased to see key urology meetings showing leadership here to address these broad concerns.
  • Urological Surgery in Renal Transplant Patients – this session was very emlightening for urologists who work alongside bust renal transplantation services. The transplant population have many challenging urological issues and Dr Jon Olsburgh from Guy’s & St Thomas’ in London provided an excellent overview of some of these. He outlined very nice strategies for stones in patients who have received an allograft and also for those considering kidney donation. A summary can be found in the EUT Newsletter from Day 3.
  • There were many poster sessions throughout each day – too many to be honest for us to keep track of.  Fear not though – keep an eye on the BJUI blogs for the Best of the Best Posters coming soon. We would also direct you to Twitter where you will find some excellent commentary from the many active Tweeters who attended various poster sessions. Just search under the #eau13 hashtag. Watch out in particular for tweets from the Montreal/Detroit group who presented much work and were particularly active on Twitter (@qdtrinh, @peepeedoctor, @jdsammon, @maxinesun and others).
  • Souvenir Session and EAU Guidelines on Live Surgery: The last day featured an excellent souvenir session which overviewed some of the key messages for the meeting. European Urology Editor-in-Chief Elect , Jim Catto, reviewed Urothelial cancers and observed that PET scanning has most value for evaluating distant disease rather than pelvic lymphadenopathy when compared to CT scanning. The management of small renal masses, a dominant topic this year, also . The highly-anticipated EAU Guidelines on Live Surgery were presented very nicely by Section Chairman Keith Parsons and were very well received. There are sometimes competing goals here and these guidelines will ensure that the best interests of patients are maintained while maximising the educational value of these very popular sessions.
  • Breaking News: this final session had a number of headlines, one of which was data from Peter Wiklund’s group in Sweden which suggested that long-term cancer outcomes for localised prostate cancer patients are better for those who underwent surgery rather than radiotherapy. Also data from Bertrand Tombal showing a greater than 50% reduction in cardiovascular morbidity for patients on the GnRH antagonist degarelix when compared with those on GnRH analogues. Further detail of this are awaited.

Lastly, we would again like to congratulate EAU and all the active Tweeters who contributed so much to the social media side of this year’s meeting. The final data from Symplur show huge activity which greatly expanded the reach and engagement of this meeting:

We are also very pleased that the BJUI team dominated the metrics for key influencers of #eau13 which reflects well on the strong social media strategy which we have put in place since January 2013. We were delighted to visit the busy EAU Communications back-office on the last day of the meeting to congratulate Communication Manager Evgenia “Zhenya” Starkova and her talented team who did a fantastic job running the Congress and EAU websites, twitter, facebook, video interviews etc and who we enjoyed interacting with through the week. Zhenya’s team kept tweeters engaged by awarding a “Tweet of the Day”:

EAU Official Tweets of the Day for the conference:

Friday –  “Small renal masses, debate continues: surveillance vs biopsy vs partial vs radical neph. Individualised care is key.” @HamidAbboudi

Saturday – “#eau13 this is not just the European meeting now. It is the world meeting! What an event.”
@benchallacombe

Sunday – “It’s going to be a tough act for Stockholm to follow! Great congress so far! #eau13”@SJGore

Monday – “I suspect #eau13 will be remembered as 1st major urology meeting to do social media seriously. It’s been great fun!”@MattBultitude

So we look forward to EAU Annual Congress 2014 which takes place in Stockholm from 11-15th April 2014. We wish Scientific Chair Arnulf Stenzl and the team at EAU Central Office all the best with planning for next year’s meeting!

We will be back with more conference coverage from the Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand Annual Scientific Meeting that takes place in Melbourne next month (#usanz13).

 

Declan Murphy & Matt Bultitude
BJUI Associate Editors

 

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