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Quality improvement programs address all aspects of care and care delivery. Here are a few programs that impact urology, all of which were presented at the AUA annual meeting in Boston.

Changes in health care have made quality improvement (QI) program participation more than a good idea. Today, QI activities are part of the alphabet soup of regulations impacting provider pay.

Electroacupuncture involving the lumbosacral region is safe, well-tolerated, and can reduce the amount of urine leakage in women with stress urinary incontinence, researchers reported.

A quasi-randomized trial of open versus robotic radical prostatectomy and an evaluation of robotic inferior vena cava thrombectomy were among other key minimally invasive surgery studies at the AUA annual meeting in Boston.

An updated guideline on localized kidney cancer as well as a look at active surveillance as initial management for renal masses <2 cm were among the noteworthy kidney cancer studies at the AUA annual meeting in Boston.

A study documenting that male paternal age is increasing across the U.S. and a finding that men with Sertoli cell-only syndrome have increased damage to seminiferous tubules with aging are among the take-homes in infertility/andrology at the AUA annual meeting in Boston.

Other infection/inflammation take-home messages from the AUA annual meeting include a study of predictors of fluoroquinolone resistance in the rectal vault of men undergoing prostate biopsy and a study of 1,310 patients evaluated over 16 years for CP/CPPS.

A prospective evaluation of cancer detection rates with PI-RADS and the finding that use of micro-computed tomography enabled rapid phenotyping of GU anomalies in adult and embryonic mice were among other key imaging studies from the AUA annual meeting.

Other AUA 2017 take-home messages in sexual dysfunction included a study indicating that obstructive sleep apnea correlated with increased venous leak as well as a finding that wounded veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan with genitourinary injuries had higher injury severity scores and were more likely to have urinary and sexual dysfunction than those without GU injuries.

For suspected low-grade, newly diagnosed, or occasionally recurrent bladder cancer, a single post-transurethral resection of bladder tumor instillation of gemcitabine (Gemzar) reduces bladder cancer recurrence by 47%, according to a recent study.

Evaluation of upper tract surveillance for high-grade, nonmuscle-invasive bladder cancer and evidence suggesting that androgen receptor activity may be related to recurrence and treatment of bladder cancer were among the take-home messages in this area from AUA 2017.

Studies of bipolar plasma vaporization of the prostate and thulium vapoenucleation were among the other noteworthy research in BPH/LUTS presented at the AUA annual meeting in Boston.