Changes to the genitourinary system are common with aging and can lead to a variety of clinical conditions and problems for older adults. Urology is one of the specialties with the largest overall volume of clinical care provided for older adults. Patients aged 65 years and older account for more than 70% of overall practice for most general urologists. Research continues to help advance our knowledge and understanding of the aging process and how it influences urological health. This includes research across all spectrums ranging from basic and translational science to clinical care and health policy.

The annual meeting of the Geriatric Urological Society (GUS) will be held on Sunday, September 12 from 1 to 3 p.m. in conjunction with the annual meeting of the AUA. This year’s program will include 4 sub-sessions, each focused on research related to geriatrics and urology. All sessions will include question and answer time and discussion with the presenters and audience members.

The first will look at bladder dysfunction associated with aging using a translational science approach. Dr. Michael Chancellor from the William Beaumont Medical Center will discuss the Neurogenic and Myogenic Etiology of Bladder Dysfunction in older adults. Dr. Pradeep Tyagi from University of Pittsburgh will present a talk entitled, “Pharmacology and Novel Targets of Aging Bladder Dysfunction.” The potential of new targets could open up the options of new and different treatments for this bothersome condition.

The second section of the meeting will provide a detailed analysis of the Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (PLUS) Research Consortium. This is a National Institutes of Health-funded research effort designed to examine a wide variety of prevention strategies and methods in relation to bladder health. Dr. Alayne Markland from the University of Alabama at Birmingham will moderate the panel discussion. She will also review the work that has been done by the research group over the first 5 years of the project and issues related specifically to elderly women. Dr. Leslie Rickey from Yale University will present Measuring Bladder Health Across the Life Course, a topic that is particularly important when considering patient clinical outcomes. Dr. Ariana Smith from the University of Pennsylvania and Dr. Siobhan Sutcliffe from Washington University in St. Louis will examine issues of Defining and Evaluating Bladder Health from a Population Perspective.

I will have the pleasure of moderating a discussion for the third portion of the meeting on the topic of frailty as it applies in geriatric urology. This is an area that has garnered a great deal of attention in both research and clinical geriatrics over the past years. Dr. Anne Suskind from the University of California, San Francisco has done extensive research on the topic of measuring frailty and examining applications in urological practice. She will present a talk entitled “The Timed Up and Go Test (TUGT) as a Measure of Frailty in Benign Urologic Practice.” Dr. Casey Kowalik, one of my partners at the University of Kansas, will talk about Using Frailty Assessment in Clinical Practice. I will explore how we extrapolate results from clinical trials on frailty into practice and consider what might be missing and gaps in research.

The final portion of the meeting will include an international roundtable on research in aging in urology. This has become a traditional part of the GUS meeting and will be moderated by Dr. Ananias Diokno of the William Beaumont Medical Center, who is also the Immediate Past President of our Society. Dr. Stephanie Gleicher, Fellow at Vanderbilt University, will present her group’s research entitled, “Association Between Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI) and Metabolic Syndrome.” Dr. Oğuz Özden Cebeci from Turkey will discuss his work on Complications of Radical Cystectomy in the Geriatric Population.

Each year the discussion at the GUS meeting provides a time for researchers and clinicians with an interest in care of older adults with urological issues to come together and explore current science. It also helps generate new questions for future work in our field.