While nature has been busy in New England, changing over from winter to a beautiful spring, the New England Section of the American Urological Association has been busy too, making preparations for the 91st Annual Meeting, which will be held in Portland, Maine September 29 through Oct 1. Doctors. Linda Ng from Boston University and Florian Schroeck from Dartmouth have been building an outstanding program that should have broad interest for urologists in community and academic practices as well as PAs, NPs and urology nurses.

The program committee has reviewed 145 abstract submissions and we are in the process of populating 7 scientific podium and 2 poster sessions on topics ranging through BPH/LUTS, Prostate Cancer, stone disease etc. Each scientific session will be preceded by a short, how-to video covering topics such as Retzius sparing prostatectomy, metoidioplasty and mini PCNL. We will have 3 outstanding panels – one on conflict resolution, one on building a gender affirming surgery program and the other an international panel on nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer. Drs. Doug Dahl and Michelle Kim from Massachusetts General Hospital are coordinating a practical hands-on course on transperineal prostate biopsy. Dr. Tobi Chai of Boston University will present the AUA Instructional Course “A Guidelines Based Approach to the Management of Recurrent UTIs.”

Dr. Machele Donat from Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York will deliver the NEAUA’s signature Wyland Leadbetter lecture entitled “Standardizing How We Evaluate and Report Surgical Outcomes Can Improve Patient Outcomes.” She will discuss her work on improving patient outcomes following radical cystectomy and how that applies to other areas in our field. An important and pertinent topic that we in the broader urological community need to understand, adapt and adopt, Dr. Khurshid Ghani from the University of Michigan will present a state of the art lecture entitled, “Efficient Laser Lithotripsy with The Equipment You Have” and the New England Section’s Michael Blute from the Massachusetts General Hospital will discuss the role of cytoreductive nephrectomy for renal cancer in 2022.

In our Socioeconomic session we will address several diverse topics. Dr. Raj Pruthi from the University of California, San Francisco has recently surveyed academic physicians regarding compensation and will present some of this data as well as discuss various compensation models for academic and community urologists. A pertinent topic of interest to all of us. Recently, there has been increased interest and a move toward unionization in some of the residency programs in New England. We will have a panel to discuss the current state, the pros and cons of this controversial issue and other hot topics in employment and health care law.

The Young Urologists Committee, led by Dr. Angela Arlen from Yale, has arranged a panel on early career promotion and advancement and the APP group led by Susan Palmer PA from the Lahey Clinic are coordination a session based on the results of a recent needs survey circulated to Urology APPs in our region.

We will work hard and then we will play hard too! Our local arrangements committee, Drs. Matt Hayn, Brian Jumper and Thomas Kinkead, all of Portland, Maine, have helped to secure the Shipyard Brewery for our Saturday, October 1 evening event, which will be a fun and relaxed opportunity to close out our meeting. It will be a chance to sample some of Portland’s eclectic selection of craft beers. This event and receptions in the exhibit hall during the meeting will allow us to reconnect with our colleagues in industry.

Aside from our planned events, Portland is a wonderful, eclectic destination that offers art, outdoor, culinary and many other experiences for our meeting participants. I encourage you to visit https://www.visitportland.com/ to learn about all the Portland has to offer outside of our meeting, and/or lean on our arrangements committee who are Portland experts!

We hope AUA members from other sections will join us in Portland. As you can see, we have a great educational and social program in a wonderful New England City at the peak of the fall foliage season. Registration will be open shortly at https://meeting.neaua.org/.