The Urological Society for American Veterans (USAV) will hold our annual meeting on Sunday, May 15 (10:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m., St. Charles Ballroom, Hilton New Orleans Riverside) in conjunction with the AUA Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

USAV is the premier professional society for the advancement of urological care for patients in the Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system. Through education, research and raising awareness of health care policies, USAV pursues its 3 missions: 1) promote the highest standards of urological care for American veterans, 2) advocate for the well-being of federal urological practitioners to enhance their ability to deliver the highest quality of urological care to American veterans and 3) affiliate and collaborate with SGSU (Society of Government Service Urologists) in its missions to represent and support active and reserve urologists of the U.S. Armed Forces.

The 4-hour USAV program at the AUA is created to focus on urological issues unique to VA urology practitioners as well as university urologists and private urologists supporting VA health care in providing care through VA community care referrals. The Scientific Program Chair, Dr. Arvin K. George, Ann Arbor VA/University of Michigan, and co-chair Dr. Abhinav Sidana, Cincinnati VA/University of Cincinnati have organized an outstanding educational meeting. The program includes state-of-the-art presentations, keynote lectures and updates by nationally renowned speakers. In addition, there are 10 podium presentations and 18 posters representing original research, much of which focuses on Veterans urology. A mid meeting break, with a light buffet lunch, will be provided while viewing the posters.

Program highlights include:

1. Conducting Research at the VA—NAVREF (National Association of Veterans Research and Educational Foundations), Julia Houston, MSW. NAVREF is an organization of foundations that bring high-quality research and clinical trials to veterans by streamlining processes, increasing efficiency and supporting research administration, contracting and implementation. This lecture will be a resource for both experienced and new VA researchers.
2. Balloon Debate: Surgical Management of Bladder Outlet Obstruction. Debaters will discuss the merits of traditional techniques such as transurethral prostatectomy (L. Spencer Krane, MD, New Orleans VA/Tulane University) and enucleation (John M. DiBianco, MD, Ann Arbor VA/University of Michigan), and newer technologies such as Rezu- m™ (Arvin K. George, MD), UroLift^® (Amin S. Herati, MD, Johns Hopkins University) and Aquablation^® (Gopal Badlani, MD, Salisbury VA/Wake Forest University). Even if the question of what the best approach is to bladder outlet obstruction/benign prostatic hyperplasia is not definitively settled, attendees will learn the newest approaches to this problem, which commonly affects veterans, in a lively and educational forum.
3. Use of the Oncotype DX® Test in Managing Prostate Cancer in Veterans. Industry-sponsored talk from Exact Sciences.
4. Addressing the Needs of Female Veterans at the VA, Rachel Rubin, MD, Washington DC VA/Georgetown University. The number of female veterans seeking care in the VA system is increasing. This lecture will focus on health issues unique to the female veteran population and how to build a program to care for these veterans.
5. PSMA PET—Indications and Outcomes. Kevin Ginsburg, MD, MS, Fox Chase Cancer Center, will highlight the evidence and opportunities of the new imaging technology, prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography, in initial staging and followup.
6. Novel Lasers in Endourology. Khurshid Ghani, MD, Ann Arbor VA/University of Michigan, will educate attendees on new laser technologies for treating a variety of urological conditions.

   For registration and information on USAV membership, please visit the USAV website at https://govurology.org/usav/.

   We look forward to welcoming you at the USAV meeting. Finally, we wish to extend our thanks to the AUA and SGSU for their support of USAV.