Urology

Using the department’s robust tissue, urine and blood banks, our teams collaborate with colleagues across the hospital to investigate challenging urological research questions. We seek to expand our disease-specific banks for translational research, which will help researchers to conduct genetic and molecular analyses of patient samples to drive new urological discoveries.

An expanded and formalized urologic oncology research effort will allow our team to identify new avenues of clinical investigation for diseases like prostate, bladder and kidney cancers. We aim to develop a model of coordinated clinical and basic research to rapidly translate laboratory findings for clinical adoption and to improve patient care and outcomes.

The department has several ongoing clinical research projects that are examining the causes of urological diseases as well as potential new treatments. We seek to expand these efforts, including by hiring a clinical trials nurse to help execute trials to test new therapeutics and identify new disease biomarkers.

The department aims to expand its collaborative efforts with the interdisciplinary Center for Outcomes and Patient Safety in Surgery, which develops new quality and safety standards based on more effective data collection and analysis. We also seek to collaborate more closely with the Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit, which advances epidemiologic investigations and translates their discoveries into effective clinical interventions.