BAUS, BJUI, USANZ & SCAUR Joint Session at AUA 2022

The joint session returned to the AUA for the first in-person meeting since 2019. As in previous years, the joint session was allocated a room in the nearby satellite hotel on the Sunday afternoon of the program. It was good to see audience members representing the different organisations badging the session.

The program was split into two sections; the first section was called “Next generation screening for prostate cancer” and was chaired by Alastair Lamb on behalf of Freddie Hamdy. The three speakers were Sigrid Carlsson, Hashim Ahmed and Matt Cooperberg. Dr Ahmed, unfortunately, tested positive in his pre-flight COVID test but was able to send a recorded presentation and joined the live discussion via video link. The presentations were very high quality, Tim O’Brien commented that Dr Cooperberg’s was the best talk he’d heard all year. The program was devised with fewer speakers than in previous years to allow more time for discussion and, despite a lower attendance than in the past (the conference as a whole had lower attendance, especially overseas delegates), the audience was lively and engaged and this was reflected in the debate, which was continued during the tea break.

Matt Cooperberg tells us PSA is one of the best markers ever studied

The second half was entitled “The stony way to success” and was chaired by Palle Osther. The presentations in this section, which again were of extremely high quality, were given by Nadya York, Olivier Traxer, and Sarah Howles. Most of the audience had stayed for the second half and were joined by some new faces, as expected with the change of topic. Audience engagement was also equally high and the discussion robust. Many attendees were grateful that the BJUI reception that followed the session allowed an opportunity to continue their discussion.

Prof Osther introduces a new meaning of PSA as he introduces the second half

Finally, the session also included the presentation of the BJUI Americas Prize, awarded to authors of the best paper published in BJUI from North or South America. The winners were Blayne Welk and Eric McArthur for their paper “Increased risk of dementia among patients with overactive bladder treated with an anticholinergic medication compared to a beta-3 agonist: a population-based cohort study” Access the research. Dr Welk attended the session and collected the prize from BJUI Chair Alan McNeill.

Dr Welk presented with the BJUI Americas prize 2022