Richard K. Babayan, MD
After welcoming attendees to his home city during Saturday morning’s plenary session, AUA President Richard K. Babayan, MD, noted the many ways the urology profession and the AUA have changed and adapted in the 40-year span of his career. He also emphasized the need for continued education, innovation and leadership in the field.
“I have a vested interest in the future. The resident today is going to be my urologist in the future as I join the elderly crowd,” said Dr. Babayan, professor and Chair of the Department of Urology at Boston University School of Medicine and Chief of Urology at Boston Medical Center. “The lessons I’ve learned are to remember the past but embrace research and change. Be flexible. Never stop learning. And you have to have supportive family and colleagues.”
Dr. Babayan addressed the many challenges facing urologists, including limited finances for urological education; critical shortages of urologists, especially in rural areas; no likely expansion of training programs; turf battles with other specialties; and health care reform. All play vital roles in limiting what urologists can accomplish, he said.
“Traditional practice patterns are gone. Large groups are beginning to dominate urban areas. Solo practices are disappearing. Economics are forcing more and more practices into hospital-based or hospital-owned practices. We have to deal with this in the future,” Dr. Babayan said.
But it’s not all doom and gloom, he added. Urology has been very good at adapting to change in the past. And in the future, more and more patients will seek urological care as the baby boomer population ages.
“We know that primary care MDs are the gatekeepers, but we as urologists can market ourselves, just as the gynecologists have, as the primary care providers of the genitourinary tract,” Dr. Babayan said. “We have a tradition of adapting and evolving, but we must take an active role in decision making. Don’t let administrators define our role in health care. We need to advocate in this.”
Not only has the specialty adapted to the new challenges posed by population growth, increased diversity, technology advances and legislative action, but the AUA has led the way in developing programs to assist urologists in meeting those challenges.
Dr. Babayan noted the addition of a c6 component to its c3 corporation to allow advocacy, increased educational resources, and the development of databases and research support for the future of urology.
“We found we needed to communicate with the younger generation, and the AUA is as digitally competent in social media as any other organization in the world,” he said. “We worked to develop leadership and inclusiveness in our society and in our organization. We’ve increased our diversity and our global outreach to meet the needs of a changing society.”
Dr. Babayan encouraged members to get involved in their organization, just as he was encouraged by one of his mentors, AUA Past President Joseph B. Dowd, MD, to get involved in the New England Section and the AUA.
“I cannot emphasize enough the need for change from within,” he said. “We must bring young people in. I think the leadership program we started in 2004 was a great step forward. We are seeing younger and younger members participating at the board level.”
The AUA also continues to be at the forefront of science and education. The AUA Annual Meeting is the largest urological meeting in the world and The Journal of Urology® is the most widely read and cited urology journal worldwide. AUAUniversity, the AQUA Registry and the data produced from the AUA Census all add to the innovative nature of what the AUA offers not only to urologists, but to the medical community at large.
“No other specialty has what we have online and available to our students, our residents and our members for continuous education,” Dr. Babayan said.
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