Flipping the script
AUA2024 will offer new unrestricted, fresh formats to amp up active learning.

Change is coming to the AUA Annual Meeting in 2024. Look for novel programming with key clinical trials in progress, wide-ranging video presentations and early-career urologists presenting complex cases to stump their senior colleagues.David Penson, MD, MPH
“We are flipping the script in our programming this year, taking this opportunity to present materials in different formats without the usual restrictions in our new Learning Lab setting,” said AUA Secretary David Penson, MD, MPH, professor and chair of urology and Hamilton and Howd Chair in Urologic Oncology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. “We are working to make the meeting even more interactive, to get some of the back-and-forth that you can’t really do in standard sessions. The goal is to get away from just having experts standing up on stage lecturing the audience.”
The AUA is working multiple pilot programs into the Annual Meeting in the new Learning Lab, where a collection of fresh formats will be rolled out. New this year is a series of three video sessions, which will explore key clinical trials still in progress and a Flip-the-Script case study presentation with junior urologists trying to stump the experts.
“When you do grand rounds, it is usually residents and fellows working through difficult cases the attendings present,” Dr. Penson explained. “We’re changing things up to have the more senior urologists work through those difficult cases. The interesting part is there is no single right answer to any of these cases. We’re looking for a good-natured back-and-forth as senior urologists work through each case and give their thoughts on how to diagnose and manage them.”
Clinical Trials in Progress is another innovation for 2024. Annual Meeting attendees can expect detailed reports of completed clinical trials to be presented in the plenary, poster and podium sessions, but reporting final results is the culmination of years of painstaking work that is seldom seen in public. Three two-hour sessions will bring attendees up to date on some of the most important trials in benign disease, bladder cancer and other urologic cancers that are still in progress and have yet to report out.
“The response to our call for Clinical Trials in Progress was overwhelming,” Dr. Penson said. “I originally thought we would need an hour at most, and we’re up to six hours. The goal is to present ongoing trials and get feedback and discussion with the audience. This is a much more interactive format, with researchers, industry sponsors, patients and audience members all part of the discussion.”
The Learning Lab kicks off on Friday, 7-9 a.m., with a video session on “Female Voiding Dysfunction/Pelvic Floor Disorders/Incontinence/Neuro-Urology.” Next up is a video session on “Adrenal/Renal Oncology,” 9:30-11:30 a.m., and “Clinical Trials in Progress: Benign Disease,” 1-3 p.m.
Saturday brings “Top Surgical Videos: Innovations in Diagnostics and Techniques,” 1-3 p.m., and “Flip-the-Script: Case Studies,” 3-4 p.m.
Sunday opens with “Clinical Trials in Progress: Bladder Cancer,” 10 a.m.-noon, and “Clinical Trials in Progress: Cancer,” 1-3 p.m., including trials in prostate, renal, bladder, penile and other cancers.
“We are already playing with other ideas for 2025 to make it easier for people to ask questions in poster sessions, and maybe even in the plenary using information technologies to get questions to the speaker in real time,” Dr. Penson said. “The back-and-forth, the exchange of ideas, is what makes these sessions.