2009 Annual Report - Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand

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Controversies in The Provision of Urology Services - not to be missed! This year we are dispensing with a formal sports afternoon, partly because the level of participation in the past has not always justified the time and expense involved in organising this. The scientific program and trade displays will continue to the end of the meeting on Wednesday. There will be no session on the Thursday morning. Sponsorship this year has been harder to come by. This is a work in progress but the likelihood of a shortfall is high compared with previous years. This had been anticipated to some degree because of economic conditions but here is no doubt that other factors are important, including an increasing number of USANZ sanctioned meetings which are diluting the pool of money available for the ASM. This will however be a great meeting, with new features such as video poster boards and Twitter updates. As always there will be plenty of opportunities for social interaction against the stunning backdrop of Perth. I look forward to seeing you in Perth ■ Christchurch 2011 Jane MacDonald The Christchurch urologists and New Zealand Urology Nurses group are hosting our scientific meeting in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2011, commencing on 20 February. We are getting the framework together and obviously we will pick up momentum this year. Our venue is the Christchurch Convention Centre which is a modern, purpose built facility in central Christchurch. The team there have hosted large international medical and non-medical conferences. It will be an ideal venue for our event. The associated hotels have also been booked in advance, as have the social venues. Kelly Logan from Events Planners and Michael Nugara are coming over for a site visit after the Perth ASM in February 2010. Our scientific themes will include spinal/ neurourology, bladder cancer, paediatric urology, female urology, training and education and hopefully andrology. This depends somewhat on successfully appointing keynote speakers and that process is underway. We will ensure subtopics do not overlap with the Perth program. I note that the sports day has been omitted at the Perth ASM and given the reduced interest in recent 36 Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand | Annual Report 2009 www.usanz.org.au years, I can understand this. However, we are very keen to feature Canterbury’s great outdoors as a theme of this conference and planned to use the sports day as a Big Day Out and a highlight of the conference. It will be a sports day with a difference and we will be really disappointed if this has to be cancelled. I am sure we can discuss this further at some stage. I am keen to appoint our speakers as soon as possible but other than that I think we have the bones in place ■ ____________________________________ Section reports New South Wales Fin Macneil The section has undertaken a change in governance with the executive now comprised of Past Chair (Henry Woo), Vice Chair (congratulations to Mohamed Khadra on his election), current Chair (Finlay Macneil) and Secretary (Michael Wines). This structure will enable the section to develop a “corporate memory” and thereby avoid re-inventing the wheel each year. The thrust of Henry Woo’s chairmanship has been to re-invigorate the educational role of the section with mid year meetings on emerging technology and closer co-operation with UOP as well as co-badging some of their meetings. The mid-year meeting this year was a dinner meeting on emerging technology and the diagnosis of prostate cancer – the use of genotyping, PCA3, other serum markers, PET and MRI. Frank Gardiner, Damien Bolton and Kris Rasiah gave excellent distillations of the ‘state of the art’ in these areas. We plan to continue this format in the future. There are now also plans for further educational meetings at the beginning of the year as well, so watch this space. The NSW section annual meeting was held in Shoal Bay on Port Stephens and continued the recent trend of increased participation by members of the section. The invited experts, Prof Judd Moul from Duke and A/Prof Helen O’Connell, entertained and enlightened registrars and consultants alike. The meeting tried a new mode of presentation of registrars’ research in response to the increased number of registrars now in the section. The
esearch was displayed as a poster as well as giving a three minute podium presentation and two minutes of questions from the audience. This format will be retained with slightly longer for questions in 2010. The Section’s congratulations goes to all the registrars who passed the fellowship exams. We wish them all the best in their fellowships and look forward to them re-joining us after the fellowships. ■ New Zealand Peter Davidson The NZ Section has been through a process of reevaluation. A weekend of discussion about future direction and activity has been productive. As part of this a monthly teleconference has been established with representatives from all centres being involved. Three New Zealand Urology Trainees passed their exams, and to be congratulated are Anna Lawrence, Adam Davies and Richard Johnston. This year’s annual section meeting was held in Napier. This was a successful meeting with David Quinlan being an invited guest from Ireland. Frank Gardiner joined us from Queensland and there were many local contributors. One of the highlights of the meeting was a Petcha Kutcha session with fast-fire presentation related to events that had changed the practice of Urologists. David Mason and Kim Broome are to be congratulated for the success of this meeting. The NZ Section meeting in 2010 will be held on 11-12 November in Nelson - Andy Malcolm is confirmed as the Convenor for this meeting. Finally, the Chairmanship of the Section changes according to the Constitution at the Perth meeting in February 2010. Mark Fraundorfer is the incoming Chairman. ■ Northern Roger Hinsch The section voted almost unanimously to gift the Urological Cancer Research Society $10,000 towards the running of their Annual Scientific Meeting held in Port Douglas this year. The year was tumultuous in that we lost David Nicol to the Royal Free Hospital in London, there were two robotic prostatectomy units commissioned, one at Greenslopes Private Hospital and one at Royal Brisbane Hospital, directed by Geoff Coughlan. Details are being finalised to commence a prospective trial through the RBH examining the relative benefits of Robotic prostate surgery compared with traditional approaches in a scientific fashion. Hopefully this research will receive the support it deserves. Our ASM was held in Byron Bay in October. We welcomed David Malouf, and Michael Nugara from USANZ. Our guests included local histopathology, medical oncology, radiation oncology and medical imaging experts. The meeting was multidisciplinary and well received. At our AGM at Byron Bay, several members of our section expressed dismay at how the USANZ position statement regarding PSA assessment had been formulated and rolled-out. These members felt the statement did not represent their views regarding the issue, and after intense debate, no compromise could be reached, and it was asked that David Malouf relay the disappointment some of the section felt in this regard. We look forward to 2010 being relatively less unsettled than 2009. ■ Western Australia Paul McRae The WA section meeting has just concluded and was very successful. The section appreciated the effort of David Malouf to attend the meeting, which include a three hour drive to Smith’s Beach near Margaret River. The new Forest Hwy has just opened, reducing the journey by 30-40 minutes. There have been four successful candidates for the Fellowship examination, Adrian Clubb, Hans Goossen, Akshay Kothari, and Chris Tracey. The winners of travelling fellowships were: Stuart Philip - Hospira, Sanjeev Bandi - Abbott, and Nigel Dunglison and David Hussey - AstraZeneca. Section members have been busy organising the 2010 ASM here in Perth. East coast visitors can try the highway for themselves and sample all that Margaret River has to offer! The da Vinci robot is busier than ever, six surgeons are now using this regularly. I may be forced to Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand | Annual Report 2009 www.usanz.org.au 37
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Page 3 and 4: Contents USANZ Committees 2009 4 Pr
Page 5 and 6: Board of Directors 2009 From left t
Page 7 and 8: President’s report David Malouf I
Page 9 and 10: Governance • Following the consti
Page 11 and 12: Associate Member - Scientific/Resea
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Page 41 and 42: USANZ Prizes and Awards 2009 Keith
Page 43 and 44: Minutes of the 62nd Annual General
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2009 Annual Report - Urological Society of Australia and New Zealand

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