I was tremendously honored to be asked by the AUA to take on the role as the first global editor of AUANews. As the immediate past Secretary of the AUA, I was concurrently editor of AUANews for 4 years. As a result, I know the publication well and am thrilled to be back working with the outstanding AUANews team including the new editor, Dr Stacy Tanaka.

We live in a global world that has experienced a vast increase in connectivity through travel and electronic communications in the last several decades. It has been my great fortune to have been a part of this trend, having visited over 70 countries and experienced more than 400 opportunities to participate in various urology-associated events and congresses. This includes countries from Argentina to China, Saudi Arabia to Kazakhstan, and almost everywhere in between. This experience has transformed the way I view the world and opened my mind to new approaches to international collaboration in education, research, and urologic practice. It is a very complicated geopolitical world we live in, but I have been amazed at the consistency and shared values that urologists bring in dealing with patients throughout the world who seek our care. The common dedication and drive to improve our approaches and advance the art and science of urology that exists in all countries has made for an inspiring journey for me. It is with this enthusiasm that I take on the global editor role at AUANews.

AUANews in its current state already provides an excellent platform for sharing the latest information in our specialty on a global scale. With a worldwide distribution twice a month and translation into several languages, the current reach extends to urologic practitioners and trainees in over 140 countries.

The March 2024 issue of AUANews Extra focused on global urology. If you have not seen this issue, I encourage you to access the online edition as it provides a robust view of urology around the world. AUA also attends many national and multinational meetings each year, and is working with our partners to highlight key innovations and lectures being presented at their meeting via video interviews with the experts. This was recently done with the Sociedade Brasileira de Urologia at its meeting in Salvador, and all of these highlights are available on the AUANews platform. Other features available at https://auanews.net are AUANewsWorthy webinars, which includes a new webinar livestreamed each month. These are available to watch for free, and a multipart series was just finished on nonmuscle-invasive bladder cancer, covering recent news and the ATLAS Study Group. Hybrid articles have also been incorporated into the platform that features short videos to complement the print articles.

The evening after I was asked to take on this role, I immediately began to think of content ideas for an internationally focused column in AUANews. As a nontraditional scientific publication and thus different from typical journals, AUANews provides flexibility in the scope of material that can be presented. And I have a wide network of friends to draw on throughout the world! In recent years I have often heard comments from others that I must know someone from everywhere—enough so that I started to think it might actually be true. I intend to draw on this network to curate a series of interesting and engaging internationally focused articles for AUANews over the coming years.

By my estimation, about half of the world’s 195 countries have a national urology association. For those who do not there is the opportunity to be involved in one of several multinational urologic groups, including the European Association of Urology (EAU), Urologic Association of Asia (UAA), ASEAN and Maghreb Federation group of countries, Confederación Americana de Urología (CAU), the SAARC Association of Urological Surgeons (South Asia), Pan-African Urological Association (PAUSA), Caribbean Urological Association (CURA), and the Arab Association of Urology (AAU). And of course we have 2 completely internationally focused societies, the Endourological Society and the Société Internationale d’Urologie. This is not a comprehensive list and I apologize to those I may have missed. Many of these associations and societies have an associated urology journal. It would be my hope that we can highlight the latest news and exciting local advancements in our specialty from many of these national associations and multinational groups. I have learned over the years that a sentinel advance in medicine can emerge from anywhere in the world, spearheaded by a single individual or a small group of innovative surgeons or research scientists. I look forward to having an opportunity to highlight these advances. We will collectively be able to learn about the demographics in our specialty across the world and variations in health systems. Additionally, highlighting innovations in education and unique programs for both physicians in practice and trainees at all levels. Finally, there is a tremendous amount of urologic humanitarian work occurring throughout the world with inspiring contributions in areas of need that AUANews can articulate for our global audience.

Again, I approach this role with great enthusiasm and thank the AUA for conceiving the concept of a global editor for AUANews.