Northwestern Medicine

Joshua Halpern, MD, MS, reviews evidence supporting the accuracy of mail-in semen analysis and identifies patients who may benefit most from at-home testing.

Jamie Michael, MD, highlights a study exploring the impact of MRI and genomics on "extreme" grade reclassification in men on active surveillance.

CVAC and FANS reflect different surgical philosophies—dusting vs fragmentation—with distinct ergonomic trade-offs and shared intrarenal pressure risks that urologists must actively monitor, according to Krambeck.

Enucleation is appropriate for the vast majority of patients with BPH, but certain patient profiles—including prior radiation, significant neurologic conditions, morbid obesity, and dementia—warrant caution or referral to specialists, whereas the most consistent technical failure among surgeons past their learning curve is inadequate apical tissue removal driven by discomfort with sphincter proximity, according to Amy E. Krambeck, MD.

Jenny Guo, MD, discusses data suggesting that hemi-HoLEP may be a viable treatment option for patients with prior pelvic radiation.

The phase 1/2 ResQ133A-NMIBC trial (NCT06800963) is evaluating intravesical recombinant BCG in patients with BCG-naïve high-risk NMIBC across US sites, with safety as the primary end point and complete response and disease-free survival as secondary end points, building on European data showing 50% response rates and no dose-limiting toxicities in BCG-unresponsive disease.

Advances in laser technology, morcellator design, and anesthetic approach have substantially improved HoLEP efficiency and patient recovery over the past decade, while surgeon-owned procedural checklists and pre-morcellation hemostasis remain the most critical safety practices for avoiding morcellator injury.

Jennifer U. Miles-Thomas, MD, MBA, reflects on the key pillars to building successful surgeon/advanced practice providers partnerships.

In this video, Jennifer Miles-Thomas, MD, recaps a SUFU 2026 discussion on leveraging surgeon–APP collaborations in urology.

Regarding acceptable risk thresholds, Alam describes himself as relatively risk-averse, favoring a 5% to 10% miss rate for Grade Group 2 or higher disease when considering biopsy avoidance.

Alam frames PHI and MRI as noninvasive tools that help refine risk before proceeding to biopsy.

Jennifer Miles-Thomas, MD, URPS, MBA, emphasizes that teleurology and team-based care models offer significant promise

The study retrospectively analyzed 456 biopsy-naive men who underwent PHI testing followed by a prostate biopsy.

2025 featured multiple advancements in women's health aimed at enhancing treatment options and awareness.

Nicholas Deebel, MD, shared key takeaways from a recent review outlining the current evidence on post-vasectomy pain syndrome.

Data suggested that most patients do not have a preference on the gender of the urologist who is providing their vasectomy care.

Joshua J. Meeks, MD, PhD, highlights that collaboration between urologists and medical oncologists has become essential.

Amy E. Krambeck, MD, explained that active suction provided by FANS helps reduce intrarenal pressure by continuously removing irrigation fluid.

Krambeck highlights that FANS combine enhanced maneuverability and effective fragment evacuation, leading to higher stone clearance rates and improved procedural outcomes in endourology.

Krambeck pointed to the growing importance of medical management in stone disease prevention.

Several experts share their thoughts on the impact of the gemcitabine intravesical system for BCG-unresponsive NMIBC.

Miles-Thomas emphasized the importance of Northwestern’s thoughtful implementation strategy.

Both urologists emphasized that Northwestern’s integrated structure and commitment to innovation allow any urologist within the network to contribute ideas and see them developed into practice.

The course addresses "unicorn cases" in the upper tract—unique and challenging situations lacking established guidelines or literature.

Amy E. Krambeck, MD, discusses how to define success and how to determine the optimal timing for adding on a new partner.

“The takeaway is that on a population level, on a health care system perspective, it's more cost-effective and safer to do transperineal prostate biopsy,” says Mitchell M. Huang, MD.

Amir S. Patel, MD, discusses interim findings from a randomized controlled trial of onabotulinumtoxinA injection at the time of HoLEP vs standard treatment.

The risk of stricture formation was 4.6% in the TFL cohort vs 2.4% in the holmium laser cohort.