Chairman & Professor, Catherine & Joseph Aresty Department of Urology
Dr Gill joined the University of Southern California (USC) in mid-2009 as chairman & professor, department of urology. Prior to this, he was chairman & professor, department of urology at Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, where he was on faculty for 12 years (1997-2009).
During his 4 years at USC, USC urology has seen significant growth in scientific stature, clinical volumes and financial productivity. As a result, USC urology has progressed in U.S. News & World Report rankings from not being ranked in the 'Top 50' prior to 2009 to #20 in 2014.
His academic track record includes over 560 peer-reviewed scientific papers, 10 text-books and editorial board of 9 urologic journals. Funded by the NCI, he has been invited for over 450 visiting professorships, invited lectures and live surgery demonstrations world-wide. He is elected to the prestigious American Association of Genito-Urinary Surgeons (2003) and the Clinical Society of AAGUS (2009).
Dr Gill has received many honors. In 2005, the President of India awarded him the Dr. B. C. Roy National Award for Eminent Medical Person. In 2006, he was awarded the St. Paul's Medal by the British Urological Association (BAUS) for 2006, the highest honor that can be bestowed by the BAUS. He has been named honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. In 2006, he was President of the 24th World Congress of Endourology and SWL, and organized in Cleveland a highly successful world congress, with over 1,700 attendees from 62 countries. He was awarded the "USC Presidential Medallion" for 2013, the highest annual academic honor that USC can bestow from amongst the 40,000+ faculty/students from all 19 of USC's schools. He has been listed amongst "Best Doctors in America" for several years now. His minimally invasive team has won over 35 best abstract awards at various annual meetings of the AUA and other urologic societies over the past 5-7 years.
Google "Top Authors in Urology" ranks Dr Gill #1 in the field of Urology. Peer-reviewed papers: 513, Citations: 8452, H-index: 48, G-index: 72 (Google "Top Authors in Urology") (accessed August 12, 2014). Dr Gill was listed in the 2014 Thomson Reuters "The World's Most Influential Scientific Minds." Reuters assessed papers indexed between 2002-2012 in 21 fields of study and authors who published numerous articles ranking among the top 1% cited in their fields. These papers represent research that the scientific community has judged to be the most significant and useful.
Dr. Gill's primary focus is advanced robotic urologic oncologic surgery, with one of the world's largest aggregate robotic/laparoscopic experiences in approx 9,000 cases in the United States. An acknowledged world leader in robotic/laparoscopic partial nephrectomy for renal cancer, he and his team have performed this procedure in over 2,500 patients, the world's largest series. His team's many scientific innovations in robotic/laparoscopic oncologic surgery have generated world-leading clinical series of radical cystectomy with intra-corporeal urinary diversion (n=250+), radical prostatectomy (n= 6,000+) and renal cryoablation. His team is actively developing flexible robotics and natural orifice/single-port surgery in urology, innovative concepts towards scar-free surgery. Over the past 3 years, Dr Gill and his team are focusing on developing novel image-guided targeted biopsy and lesion-specific focal therapy treatments for prostate cancer.
Anton Bueschen Professor of Urology and Chairman at UAB
Dr. Dean George Assimos is currently the Anton J. Bueschen Professor and Chairman of the Department of Urology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. He obtained a BS degree in biology from Purdue University in 1974 and an MD degree from Loyola University of Chicago in 1977. He subsequently completed his urology residency at Northwestern University in 1983. He was a fellow in intra-renal surgery and kidney stone disease at Wake Forest University in 1984 after which he was an AUA research scholar at the same institution from 1984 - 1986. He has dedicated his career to the care of patients afflicted with complex renal stone disease including medical and surgical management. He has conducted clinical, translational and basic science research focusing on factors which impact urinary oxalate excretion. He and his research colleagues have received steady funding from the NIH for these endeavors. They have demonstrated the important contribution of dietary oxalate to the urinary oxalate pool, defined the importance of interactions between dietary calcium and oxalate, and characterized mechanisms of gastrointestinal oxalate absorption and endogenous oxalate synthesis. He is the author of numerous papers and chapters pertaining to these subjects. He has served as a member of the AUA Nephrolithiasis Guidelines Panel since its inception and is currently the Chair of this committee. Dr. Assimos is on the editorial board of several urologic journals. He is also committed to urologic education participating as a speaker and course director for the AUA and other organizations. Dr. Assimos was the president of the Southeastern Section of the AUA in 2016.
Professor of Urology. The Beth and Dave Swalm Chair in Urologic Oncology, in the Scott Department of Urology, Baylor College of Medicine. TX, USA.
Seth P. Lerner, MD, is Professor of Urology and holds the Beth and Dave Swalm Chair in Urologic Oncology, in the Scott Department of Urology, Baylor College of Medicine. He is Director of Urologic Oncology and the Multidisciplinary Bladder Cancer Program and Faculty Group Practice Medical Director for the Urology Clinic. He earned his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine, completed a surgical internship at Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle, and returned to Baylor for his residency training. He completed a two-year fellowship at the University of Southern California in urologic oncology and reconstructive surgery under Peter Jones and Don Skinner before returning to join the full-time Baylor faculty in 1992. His clinical practice and educations and research activities are devoted to urologic oncology and particularly lower and upper tract urothelial cancer.
Dr. Lerner is author of more than 170 peer-reviewed articles, and co-editor of the just released third edition of the textbook Bladder Cancer. He is co-founding editor of the new journal Bladder Cancer. He established and directs the multi-disciplinary Bladder Cancer Research Program at Baylor, and his research interests include use of selective estrogen receptor modulators for treatment of bladder cancer, gene therapy, targeted molecular therapeutics, and outcomes of radical cystectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy. He has 23 years experience as a clinical investigator for both NCI and industry funded clinical trials. He is the PI of the ongoing SWOG NCI Phase III trial comparing extended vs. standard pelvic lymphadenectomy at time of radical cystectomy for muscle invasive bladder cancer.
He is active in the leadership of several national bladder caner research enterprises including of chair of the local bladder committee cancer of SWOG, Surgery co-chair of the NCI/CTEP Genitourinary Steering Committee, and the Analysis Working Group of The Cancer Genome Atlas Project for muscle invasive bladder cancer. He is very active in the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network (BCAN) as a member of the Board of Directors, past chair of the Bladder Cancer Think Tank and co-chair of the management committee of the Bladder Cancer Research Network.
Massachusetts General Hospital, USA
Biosketch
Dr. Ajay Nehra is currently an Urologist and Professor at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Nehra received his medical degree from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India, where he was also an intern. He completed a transitional surgical internship at Malden Hospital in Malden, Massachusetts; a surgical residency at Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts; and a residency and chief residency in urology at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. Additional training included a fellowship in neurourology and female urology and a fellowship in male sexual dysfunction and infertility, both at Boston University School of Medicine.
Dr Nehra's research interests focus on erectile dysfunction (ED), male infertility, incontinence, and prostate cancer. Dr. Nehra has been the principal investigator in 7 clinical multicenter investigational studies of the efficacy and safety of a number of treatments for ED. He is also a coinvestigator in a National Institutes of Health program project on aging.
Dr. Nehra has contributed more than 130 articles and 177 abstracts, mainly on ED-related subjects, to The Journal of Urology, Current Urology Reports, Journal of Andrology, International Journal of Impotence Research, and many other journals. He has also written ED-related chapters of books and he has co-authored a book of commentary on sexual dysfunction in medicine. A member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Impotence Research, Dr. Nehra is also a reviewer for Urology, Journal of Urology, Journal of Andrology, and International Journal of Impotence Research. He has been an invited panelist at the World Health Organization's International Consultation on Erectile Dysfunction; the American Urological Association (AUA) Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Treatment of Male Infertility; and, most recently, the AUA Erectile Dysfunction Guidelines Update Panel, among others. Dr. Nehra has been an invited visiting professor and presenter on ED-related topics in many venues in the United States and abroad.
Dr. Nehra's numerous professional society memberships include the American Urological Association, American Medical Association, Society for the Study of Impotence, Society of Male Reproductive Surgeons, American College of Surgeons, and International Society of Sexual Medicine and International Society of Men's Health. He is currently the President Elect of the International Society of Men's Health and the Editor of the Journal of Men's Health.
Among his other honors, Dr. Nehra has won a number of awards for best poster and best abstract at annual meetings of the AUA and has received a distinguished alumnus award from All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
Chief, Pediatric Urology, Children's Health System Texas, Professor of Urology, University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas, TX
Craig Peters, MD, is the Chief, Pediatric Urology, Children's Health, Professor of Urology, University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, TX. He received a BA and MD degree from the Johns Hopkins University, did his surgery and urology residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital at the Brady Urological Institute, a Pediatric Urology Fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital and a research fellowship at Children's and Harvard. After joining the faculty of Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, he developed the pediatric urology laboratory and carried on research into basic development and pathophysiology of the fetal urinary tract. His research has been funded by NIH/NIDDK and focused on urinary obstruction, vesicoureteral reflux, and bladder dysfunction, as well as quantitative imaging and robotics. Dr. Peters has extensive experience with developing minimally invasive surgical techniques, including robot-assisted procedures and treatment of pediatric urologic problems. He has authored numerous papers and chapters on minimally invasive surgery in children and lectured internationally in this area.
Dr. Peters was the John E. Cole Professor of Urology and Director of Pediatric Urology at the University of Virginia, where he continued his work in basic research and minimally invasive surgery, and subsequently was Chief of Surgical Innovation at Children's National and an investigator at the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation in Washington, DC.
Dr. Peters served as chair of the AUA Vesicoureteral Reflux Guidelines Committee, the NIDDK DSMB for the RIVUR Trial of vesicoureteral reflux, and several research workshops for the NIH in Pediatric Urology. He has recently served as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Urological Association. He is also a member of the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons, the Society of Pediatric Urologic Surgeons and the Society of Scholars at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Peters is on several editorial boards, is the pediatric editor of the Campbell-Walsh Textbook of Urology, and has published more than 175 original articles and over 100 chapters. He is currently serving on the NIDDK Advisory Council.
Professor and Chairman, Department of Urology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Dallas, USA
Claus G. Roehrborn, MD, joined the urology faculty at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 1992 and is currently Professor and Chairman of the Department of Urology. Dr Roehrborn's research interests are in the areas of benign and malignant prostate diseases, including medical and minimally invasive therapies for BPH, markers for and surgical treatment of localised prostate cancer. He has performed around 1500 robotic prostatectomies and an equal number of surgical procedures for BPH. His basic, translational and clinical research has yielded over 400 peer-reviewed publications, more than 30 book chapters, and numerous other contributions to the literature. He serves on the editorial board of many peer-reviewed journals, is associate editor of Urology, and co-editor of the comprehensive and authoritative Textbook of BPH. At present, Dr Roehrborn continues to be involved in virtually all aspects of BPH research as well as translational and clinical research in prostatitis and prostate cancer.
