The AUA and Urology Care Foundation™ (UCF) continue to focus on and prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in every aspect of our work. We are committed to working with our membership to advance DEI-related efforts.

Future in Urology

One important initiative that was launched in the last year was the FUTURE in Urology UpSquad Platform. As you know, the AUA’s FUTURE in Urology Program (Future Urology Talent From Under-Represented Entities) is a comprehensive incubator program designed to support the pipeline, mentorship, and promotion of premedical, medical students, and urology trainees who self-identify as underrepresented in medicine (URiM) and underrepresented in urology (URiU). We held our first FUTURE in Urology event at last year’s Annual Meeting in Chicago.

A primary goal of the FUTURE in Urology Program is to grow the number of URiM and URiU medical students by creating meaningful mentorship opportunities. To that end, the AUA’s DEI Committee developed and championed the FUTURE Upsquad Platform—a free, private online community that allows mentees to connect with volunteer mentors to support their journey to and through urology.

The platform is not limited to URiM mentees: it is open to all medical students and residents who are seeking mentors in urology. It allows users to join groups or “squads” based on topic/interest areas. These squads help mentees to better connect with mentors and build communities. We currently have over 20 squads covering topics from artificial intelligence and simulation, other technology, and start-ups, to early career urologists (up to 5 years), rural urology, sexual medicine, and reproductive urology, to Black urologists, (dis)abled persons, and neurodiversity in urology, to LatinX in urology, LGBTQIA+ in urology, and women in urology, to name a few.

You can learn more and create an account at auanet.org/membership/diversity-equity-and-inclusion/upsquad-platform

Additionally, the committee has also continued to host the Voices podcast. With an episode releasing every month, the podcast series delves into important DEI topics such as women in urology, DEI and the AUA Census, and diversity in peer review. You can find the full listing of episodes on our website: auanet.org/meetings-and-education/podcast

Beyond the work of the DEI Committee, the AUA and the UCF, our boards, councils, committees, and staff continue to implement programs and initiatives that will advance DEI within urology. Here are a few highlights.

UCF Patient Education

The UCF Patient Education Council and Committee target a diverse audience including underserved and vulnerable populations. The Foundation’s vast library of educational offerings represents multiple ethnicities, ages, and genders, as well as condition areas and patient groups. The Foundation is committed to releasing its information in multiple formats to appeal to the various ways people consume information by offering patient education as detailed web articles and patient guides, as concise fact sheets and care blogs, as well as multimedia formats such as podcasts and videos.

In recent years we have created a Spanish Resource Center on urologyhealth.org as well as health checklist bundles for Black men and women and Latino men. Additionally, we have a series of 5 factsheets on adult gender health for patients and caregivers.

Research

The AUA has several programs and initiatives that support the pipeline of developing researchers (including providing opportunities for medical students, residents, urologists, researchers, etc, from racial and ethnic backgrounds that are URiU, as well as those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds) including the LEAD (Leadership in Education, Achievement, and Diversity) Program, supported by UCF and Urovant Sciences; the Boston Scientific Medical Student Innovation Fellowship; several medical student fellowships; residency research awards; physician scientist residency training awards; research scholar awards; Rising Stars in Urology Research awards; the USMART (Urology Scientific Mentoring & Research Training) Academy; and the Early-Career Investigators Workshop.

While this article provides only a small fraction of the programmatic strides both the AUA and the UCF have taken, you can learn more about how we’re advancing DEI on our website at auanet.org/diversity

We acknowledge that the work is never done as we continue to learn about the differences in our urologic community and look forward to keeping the focus on DEI in the years to come.