Dr. Saigal named AUA Gallagher Health Policy Scholar

AUA has named Christopher Saigal, MD, MPH, as its 2009-2010 Gallagher Health Policy Scholar.

The Gallagher Health Policy Scholar Program is designed to train the next generation of urologists for leadership positions in health policy. Scholars spend 1 year engaged in critical seminars, conferences, and meetings at the national level, receive mentoring from AUA physicians in senior roles, and participate in a week-long health policy seminar for surgeons sponsored by the American College of Surgeons.

“In a field of impressive applicants, Dr. Saigal’s accomplishments, particularly his political successes on behalf of urology at the national level, stood out and earned him the honor of being selected as the third Gallagher Health Policy Scholar,” said AUA Associate Executive Director of Health Policy Beth Kosiak, PhD. “AUA is making great strides in ensuring that we have the best and the brightest young urologists becoming conversant in the full range of regulatory, legislative, quality, reimbursement, and legislative issues needed to protect and advance urology’s interests at the local, state, and national levels.”

Dr. Saigal is an associate professor of urology at the UCLA School of Medicine, where he earned his medical degree and completed his residency and a fellowship in oncology. He earned his master’s degree in public health at the UCLA School of Public Health.

Dr. Saigal, in partnership with Mark Litwin, MD, and under the auspices of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, led the creation of Urologic Diseases in America project, a compendium describing the nature and scope of major urologic diseases in the U.S.