The Urological Society for American Veterans (USAV) will hold its annual meeting in conjunction with the AUA Annual Meeting in San Antonio.

The USAV is the premier professional society for the advancement of urological care for patients in the Department of 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 Society of Government Service Urologists in its missions to represent and support active and reserve urologists of the US armed forces.

The 4.5-hour USAV program at the AUA is created to focus on urological issues unique to VA urological practitioners, as well as academic and private urological practitioners supporting veterans’ health by providing care through VA community care referrals. The scientific program chairs Dr Thomas Masterson, Miami VA/University of Miami, and Dr Mark Sawyer, Denver VA/University of Colorado, 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 12 podium presentations and 20 posters representing original research, much of which are focused on veterans’ urology. A midmeeting break, with a light buffet lunch, will be provided during poster sessions.

Program highlights include the following:

• Setting up a Transperineal Biopsy Program in the VA— Jenna Dickman, MD, Washington, District of Columbia, Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr Dickman will discuss how to set up an office-based transperineal prostate biopsy program. She will share lessons learned from building this program at the Washington, District of Columbia, Veterans Affairs Medical Center. This will be a great lecture for those urologists considering switching to transperineal biopsies.
• Strategies to Keep Veterans at the VA—Lori Lerner, MD, Boston VA Health Care System. Dr Lerner will discuss the benefits of keeping veterans in the VA system and processes to manage urology clinics in the era of increased availability of community care.
• Center for Prostatic Disease Research Update—Gregory Chesnut, MD, Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. Dr Chesnut will provide an update of prostate cancer research in the Center for Prostatic Disease Research Update. This will be a summary of a large prostate cancer patient database and biorepository that will be of interest to all prostate cancer researchers.
• Genitourinary Care for Transgender Veterans: Current Practices and Future Directions—Moderator: Jaime A. Cavallo, MD, MPHS, Yale/West Haven VA; panelists: Lee C. Zhao, NYU/Manhattan VA; Sean Iwamoto, MD, University of Colorado, Rocky Mountain Regional VA; and Jeremy Shelton, director of surgical informatics, VA National Surgery Office, West Los Angeles VA, University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine. The panel will provide insights into providing optimal care for transgender veterans. Topics will include medical and surgical care and VA guidelines for providing care.
• National Surgical Office—West Los Angeles VA. Dr Shelton will update the group on important initiatives from the VA National Surgery Office. This is an outstanding opportunity for VA urologists to interact with national VA urological leadership.

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 Society of Government Service Urologists for their support of the USAV.