March 26, 2024
Mayo Clinic Urology has been awarded competitive grants by the American Urological Association (AUA) to study practice and treatment patterns in the specialty.
Urologists Kevin Koo, M.D., M.P.H., and Kevin M. Wymer, M.D., were recently selected as AUA Data Research Program awardees to address key knowledge gaps related to urologic care, workforce development and health policy using AUA data repositories.
Dr. Koo and Dr. Wymer, both at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, are also principal investigators of innovative research projects using real-world data on the contemporary practice of urology from the AUA Census — an annual survey of U.S. urologists — and the AUA Quality (AQUA) Registry of clinical data.
Dr. Koo, an associate professor of urology at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, will use AUA Census data to study urologists' shifting attitudes toward career duration and retirement age and the factors that influence planned and unplanned workforce attrition at the individual and specialty levels.
"A stronger understanding of planned and unplanned workforce attrition among urologists can help inform evidence-based policy interventions that improve access to high-quality urologic care in rural and underserved communities."
The growing need for urologic care of an aging U.S. population has raised concerns about the size of the urology workforce. Several recent factors may have accelerated workforce attrition, including the COVID-19 pandemic, higher costs of practice, increased professional burnout and rapid market consolidation. Dr. Koo's study aims to characterize the planned and actual retirement age of urologists and urology trainees over the past decade; evaluate the impact of demographic, economic, and practice-related factors on retirement age; and assess individual-level changes in planned retirement age over time and across practice transitions.
"A stronger understanding of planned and unplanned workforce attrition among urologists can help inform evidence-based policy interventions that improve access to high-quality urologic care in rural and underserved communities," says Dr. Koo.
Dr. Koo's co-investigators are:
- Candace F. Granberg, M.D., a pediatric urologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and an associate professor of urology at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.
- Gina M. Badalato, M.D., an associate professor of urology at Columbia University Medical Center.
Dr. Wymer, also an assistant professor of urology at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, will use the AUA AQUA Registry data to study management patterns for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and analyze patient and healthcare professional factors that drive treatment selection in the United States.
Although most patients with BPH are managed with medical treatment, an estimated 2% to 5% undergo surgical intervention. The numerous BPH treatment options available today are associated with varying effectiveness, durability and complication profiles. Additionally, these interventions differ in the cost, resources, equipment and training required to implement them. However, limited data exist to determine the impact of patient and health professional factors on BPH surgical access and selection.
In addition to Dr. Koo, Dr. Wymer's co-investigators are:
- Mitchell R. Humphreys, M.D., a urologist at Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona, and a professor of urology at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.
- Aaron M. Potretzke, M.D., a urologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and an associate professor of urology at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.
"The data and analyses from our study will serve as key adjuncts for our team's broader goal of a comprehensive assessment of surgical treatment options for BPH. We plan to incorporate these data alongside our prior cost assessments and ongoing analyses of patient-reported outcomes and quality-of-life metrics in the BPH disease space.
"Ultimately, these combined data can better inform patient and health professional decisions on an individual level as well as guide policy-level decisions in the future," says Dr. Wymer.
For more information
Refer a patient to Mayo Clinic.