HUMANITARIAN Urology Care Foundation™ Humanitarian Initiatives: 3 Years in…and Growing

By: Harris M. Nagler, MD, FACS, President, Urology Care Foundation™ | Posted on: 10 Nov 2023

The Urology Care Foundation™’s (UCF) vision is to be the leader in improving health care for urologic patients worldwide by supporting research, providing patient education, and advancing humanitarian initiatives.

In 2021 the Foundation embarked on a 3-part plan to embed humanitarianism into the Foundation’s global vision and mission and to elevate the importance of humanitarianism within urology. The Board of Directors has held steady to this commitment, promulgating how humanitarian efforts are intrinsic to addressing disparities in health care opportunities, access, and care.

Now, 3 years into our humanitarian journey, the Foundation is proud to be recognizing, building, and supporting the efforts of the highly motivated and productive community of urology volunteers.

Humanitarian Recognition Award—Phase 1

The Humanitarian Recognition Award acknowledges individuals who have made outstanding contributions to meeting the needs of the underserved. This award demonstrates to the urologic community that these efforts are important, valued, and worthy of recognition. We are proud to have recognized our first 3 award winners—for decades of service improving the lives of patients in underserved areas across the globe, for passion and excellence in teaching, and building individual and organizational relationships (Table 1).

Table 1. The Urology Care Foundation™ Humanitarian Recognition Award Winners

Award recipient	Institution/practice
Catherine Rhu deVries, MD, FACS	Evanston, Wyoming
Sakti Das, MD	Lafayette, California
Serigne Magueye Gueye, MD	Dakar, Senegal

Humanitarian Grant Program—Phase 2

The UCF Humanitarian Grant Program has generated tremendous momentum. With the shared vision and support of the AUA, Foundation leaders have worked with individuals, organizations, and AUA Sections to establish more than a dozen humanitarian endowments. These endowments provide annual grants to AUA members and their ongoing projects both within and outside the US. Their significant accomplishments are evaluated based on project impact on urologic patient care, educational programming, and efforts to support sustainability. We are pleased to have awarded our first 16 humanitarian grantees (Table 2).

Table 2. The Urology Care Foundation™ Humanitarian Grant Program Awardees

Grant recipient	Institution/practice	Project location
Victoria Y. Bird, MD	University of Florida	Gainesville, Florida
Stephanie J. Kielb, MD	Northwestern University Feinberg	Rwanda
Una Jeanie Lee, MD	Virginia Mason Urology	Uganda
Ian S. Metzler, MD	Oregon Health & Science University	Trinidad and Tobago
David E. Rapp, MD	University of Virginia	Belize
Lee Richter, MD	Georgetown University	Rwanda
Samit Sunny Roy, MD, MSPH	University of Tennessee	India
Timothy G. Schuster, MD	The Toledo Hospital dba ProMedica Toledo Hospital	Belize
Kymora Scotland, MD	University of California Los Angeles	Los Angeles, California
Rajiv Singal, MD, FRCSC	Michael Garron Hospital	Malawi
Amar Singh, MD	University of Tennessee College of Medicine Chattanooga	India
Suzette Sutherland, MD	University of Washington	Senegal
Dana Weiss, MD	The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia	India
Alan J. Yaghoubian, MD	Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai	India
Kit Yuen, MD	University of Rochester	Rochester, New York

We are excited about the Foundation’s support of the humanitarian community and are constantly inspired by the work of AUA volunteers. Reports and testimonials reinforce our desire to work even harder to perpetuate these types of opportunities.

We focused on teaching TURPs (transurethral resection of the prostate) as the current management of most men with urinary retention is a chronic indwelling catheter. One of the patients we cared for had a catheter for the last 2 years and 9 months and left the hospital voiding on his own after his surgery—one of the happiest people on the planet. I’m amazed at the resilience of people in the face of hardships and the incredible opportunity we have as surgeons to change people’s lives for the better. Timothy Schuster

The head doctor of the hospital told us that the Indian culture always emphasizes giving over receiving. Despite our best efforts to give our time, energy, and compassion, I still came away feeling as though we received so much more than we gave. Alan Yaghoubian

Health Equity Fellowship—Phase 3

Launched in the spring of 2023, the Foundation’s Health Equity Fellowship Program was conceived as a means of training early-career urologists who are passionate about humanitarian work within the US so that they can be effective in engaging with diverse communities, especially those most marginalized, and become leaders within urology. The 2-year fellowship consists of 1 year of certificate-granting didactic programming in partnership with the Center for Urban Bioethics at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University. At the end of year 1, the fellow will submit a capstone project which will be supported in year 2 by a grant and ongoing mentoring.

In July, Dr Randy Vince was selected as our inaugural health equity fellow. Dr Vince is known for his passion for helping others, specifically when it comes to disparities in urologic care for prostate cancer. He is the director of Minority Men’s Health at the Cutler Center for Men at University Hospitals and an assistant professor of urology at Case Western Reserve University. We are excited to support Dr Vince’s dedication to humanitarianism and his commitment to helping the field of medicine to “do better” when it comes to health equity.

UCF has a storied history of supporting young researchers, many of whom have become leaders in urology. We are now supporting and developing the urological humanitarian leaders of the future as well. We continue to evolve to improve urological care globally. Please visit urologyhealth.org/humanitarianism to learn more about the UCF’s humanitarian initiatives, apply for funding, and support our efforts.