Abstracts from the New England Section of the AUA 2020: A Virtual Experience

G reetings to all physicians and advanced practice providers (APPs) within our NewEngland Section. I hope you and your families are staying safe and enjoying the summer under our “new normal.” I commend you all for your mental fortitude during these difficult times. Despite the challenges that COVID-19 has imposed, I am proud to report that our Section continues to progress forward in a very positive direction. The pandemic necessitated our leadership to meet virtually this year. We continued thoughtful discussion and planning for the Section. Portions of our leadership meeting included our three existing corporate members: Exact Sciences, Pfizer and Janssen. The leadership values our partnershipwith our corporate members as we are able to work together to discuss legislative concerns and areas for collaboration to benefit our members. The NEAUA leadership also continues to keep a watchful eye on Section finances, andDr. GregAdey and his Finance Committee have done a great job assessing and making adjustments to the Section’s financial position during the pandemic. The Board continues to evaluate ways to enhance the value of NEAUAmembership and engagement among our community, not just during a year when we are limited by travel andmeeting restrictions, but for future years as well, when we can all come together again. Over the past 6 months many programs have been cancelled or moved to a virtual platform, including the AUA Advocacy Summit, the AACU Annual Meeting, the Section’s residency training program at CESI (postponed to March 2021), and the Section’sAnnual Meetingwhichwas scheduled to be held in September in Burlington, Vermont. Cancelling and restructuring was the right thing to do for the safety of our community, families and patients, but it has been a challenge to watch each program succumb to the impacts of COVID-19 and our opportunities to learn and network in person this year be nearly eliminated. At the same time, I have been impressed with the creativity and ingenuity of organizations to so quickly embrace virtual educational platforms and deliver quality programming online. TheMassachusetts Urology ProgramDirectors led by Drs. George Haleblian, KarimHamawy, and Ajay Singla, organized a regular series of virtual lectures which were held weekly during the height of the pandemic in early 2020. The Section has since taken over management of the program and virtual lectures are now presented on the second Wednesday of each month by expert urologists within New England. Recordings of each lecture are also available for replay for those who are unable to make the live event. I encourage all our Section members to log in to the online library of lectures found on the https://neaua.org/membersOnly.cgi .  As I hope all our Section members are aware, select elements of the Section’s 2020 program will also be available online. Beginning on September 10, 2020 and available through the end of the year, virtual abstract presentations from authors will be online as well as an outstanding panel from the NEAUA Socioeconomics Committee on “Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic” featuring Drs. Greg Adey and Veronica Triaca, Dr. Mark Levine, Commissioner of Health in Vermont, and Dr. Bill Santis of Concord Hospital. NEAUA will also offer a virtual course on Renal Cell Carcinoma, Testicular Cancer, Bladder Cancer, and Penile Cancer, led by Mary Weinstein Dunn, MSN, RN, OCN, NP-C and geared towards our advance practice providers. We will also be offering a live Young Urologists Meet and Greet Happy Hour hosted by Drs. Sammy Elsamra and Ben Ristau. While online educational programs do not offer the same collegial interactions and face to face mentoring and networking opportunities possible when we are all together, these virtual opportunities will allow all our Section members to continue their education, teaching, network in new ways, and reengage with colleagues. Please see more detail and register for these virtual programs on the https://meeting.neaua.org/. For the smallest of all the Sections, New England has always been and continues to be one of the strongest. Thank you for being a part of NEAUA. Wishing you all the best, Ernest M. Bove, MD NEAUA President PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE © The Canadian Journal of Urology TM : International Supplement, August 2020 1