Best Wishes from the Western Section AUA

SurgeWest Napa 2025, held at The Meritage Resort, concluded on November 6, 2025. Total registered attendance included 482 urologists, 86 Advance Practice Provider / Allied health pros, 74 Spouse/Guest, and over 200 exhibitors. With total attendance of over 800 persons, this is one of our largest non-Hawaii meetings of all time!

Congratulations to General Arrangements Chair: Dr. Donna Deng (pictured left) and her local arrangements committee!

For those who participated, we thank you for being with us at this meeting! For those who could not, session videos are now available for viewing.

• View live recorded sessions

• View Dr. John Barry's 2025 meeting take aways
• View the Program Book
• Click here to search and view the abstracts
• View the Meeting portal on Whova 
• View the Speakers
• View the list of Exhibitors
• Postings on X (twitter)

Miley B. Wesson Resident Essay Contest Winners


1ST PLACE: Kai Wen Cheng, MD, Loma Linda Univ. Med. Ctr.

Cured but Not Healed: Persistent Suicide Risk in Survivors of Testicular Germ Cell Tumors.


2ND PLACE: Joel Rosenberg, MD, UC San Diego

The Urologist as a Vanguard of Men's Health: Expanding Horizons Beyond the Genitourinary Tract.

3RD PLACE: Lauren Poniatowski, MD, Univ. of WA
Implementation of a simulation curriculum for operating room nursing staff utilizing a high-fidelity physical simulator model for training pediatric urethral catheter insertion.

Joseph F. McCarthy Physician Essay Contest Winners


1ST PLACE: David Tzou, MD, Univ. of Arizona
Kidney Stone Endotoxin Concentration Correlates with Post-Operative Sepsis Following Percutaneous Nephrolithotomy.

2ND PLACE: Nathan Wong, MD, Univ. of British Columbia
From Paperwork to Patient Care: How AI is Transforming the Modern Urology Practice.

History Essay Contest Winners


1ST PLACE: Anosh Dadabhoy, MS, Univ. of So. Cal.

Origins of Urologic Practice in Ancient Persia.

2ND PLACE: Joel Rosenberg, MD, UC San Diego

The Evolution of Urinary Catheterization: A Story of Materials, Design, and Patient Care.

3RD PLACE: Mitchell O’Leary, MD, UC Los Angeles

Single-Port Robotic Urologic Surgery: A Brief History and Review.

Health Policy Presentation Winners


Anthony Middleton Grand Prize Award: 
Marvin Carlisle, BS, UC San Francisco

Development and Validation of a Generative Artificial Intelligence-Based Pipeline for Automated Clinical Data Extraction from Electronic Health Records: Technical Implementation Study.


Jeffrey Kaufman Memorial Essay Award: 
Isaac Kim Jr., MD, PhD, Stanford Univ.

Facility Medicaid Insurance Share and Guideline-Concordant Prostate Cancer Care.

MODERATED POSTER SESSION WINNERS: - OVERALL WINNERS

1^st Place: #10 –  - Meera Chappidi, MD, MPH - Erdafitinib Use In Eligible Patients With Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma: Results From The Veterans Health Administration.

2^nd Place: #86 – Stephen Freedland, MD - Secondary Outcomes By Prior Definitive Treatment In Patients With High-risk Biochemically Recurrent Prostate Cancer Treated With Enzalutamide Monotherapy: EMBARK Post Hoc Analysis.

3^rd Place: #107 - Issac Kim Jr., MD, PhD Comparison of Machine Learning Algorithms to Predict Survival of Prostate Cancer Patients.

POSTER SESSION 1 - Best of Session Winners

1st Place: #10 - Meera Chappidi, MD, MPH - Erdafitinib Use In Eligible Patients With Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma: Results From The Veterans Health Administration.

2^nd Place: #20 - Domenique Escobar, MD - Age-Specific Incidence, Age At Diagnosis and Years of Life Lost in Hispanic versus non-Hispanic White Patients with Testicular Cancer in the United States.

3^rd Place: #14 – Mimi Nguyen, MD - Subcentimeter Pulmonary Nodules In Clinical Stage I Non-seminoma Patients.

POSTER SESSION 2 - Best of Session Winners

1st Place: #38 - Anthony Galvez, BA Quality-of-Care for Urge Urinary Incontinence in Primary Care: Is There a Need to Intervene?

2^nd Place: #41 - Sevilla Durán, MS Assessing School Bathroom Environments and Their Impact on Student Bathroom Use: A Pilot Observation Study.

3^rd Place: #49 - Tyler Sheetz , MD Micro-CT Based Measurement Of Ablation Efficiency Among Moses 2.0, TFL, and Tm:YAG Laser Systems.

POSTER SESSION 3 - Best of Session Winners

1st Place: #86 - Stephen Freedland, MD - Secondary Outcomes By Prior Definitive Treatment In Patients With High-risk Biochemically Recurrent Prostate Cancer Treated With Enzalutamide Monotherapy: EMBARK Post Hoc Analysis.

2^nd Place: #107 - Issac Kim Jr., MD, PhD Comparison of Machine Learning Algorithms to Predict Survival of Prostate Cancer Patients.

3^rd Place: #90 - Dan Luca, BS Prostate Ductal Anatomy as a Cancer Contrast Mechanism for Ultrasound.

ROUND TABLE WINNERS

Barry Prince Award (Inaugural)

Rachel Sanford - #376 - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Is it Possible From The Operating Room?

The Hadley Award

Emily Hacker, MD - #382 - An Unintended Perfect Puncture.

Resident Rock'n Roll Bowl Winning Team

Cork Dorks: Kevin Walsh, Jolie Shen, Ben Tooke, Adam Ostergar

Whova Meeting App Contest Winners

Community Leaderboard

• 1st Place: John C. Prince
• 2nd Place: Lauren Poniatowski
• 3rd Place: Matthew Johnson
• 4th Place: Katherine Rookstool

Exhibits Passport Contest

• 1st Place Trisha W. Kruger
• 2nd Place Philip Butler
• 3rd Place Richard Greene
• 4th Place Edward Wang

ROUND TABLE WINNERS

Barry Prince Award (Inaugural)

Rachel Sanford - #376 - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Is it Possible From The Operating Room?

The Hadley Award

Emily Hacker, MD - #382 - An Unintended Perfect Puncture.

Pictured left to right: Dr. Craig Comiter, Dr. Lane Palmer (AUA President), Dr. Polina Reyblat, Dr. Emily Hacker (won The Hadley Award), Dr. Rachel Sanford (won the Barry Prince Award), Dr. Eugene Rhee, Dr. John Prince and Dr. John Barry

WSAUA Election Results, 2025-2026 Leadership

Honoring the Past, Securing the Future

WSAUA Launches Endowed Resident Scholarship Program

POSTER SESSION 1 - Best of Session Winners

1st Place: #10 - Meera Chappidi, MD, MPH - Erdafitinib Use In Eligible Patients With Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma: Results From The Veterans Health Administration.

2^nd Place: #20 - Domenique Escobar, MD - Age-Specific Incidence, Age At Diagnosis and Years of Life Lost in Hispanic versus non-Hispanic White Patients with Testicular Cancer in the United States.

3^rd Place: #14 – Mimi Nguyen, MD - Subcentimeter Pulmonary Nodules In Clinical Stage I Non-seminoma Patients.

POSTER SESSION 2 - Best of Session Winners

1st Place: #38 - Anthony Galvez, BA Quality-of-Care for Urge Urinary Incontinence in Primary Care: Is There a Need to Intervene?

2^nd Place: #41 - Sevilla Durán, MS Assessing School Bathroom Environments and Their Impact on Student Bathroom Use: A Pilot Observation Study.

3^rd Place: #49 - Tyler Sheetz , MD Micro-CT Based Measurement Of Ablation Efficiency Among Moses 2.0, TFL, and Tm:YAG Laser Systems.

Congratulations to superstar Essay Winners! From left to right:

Dr. Chris Porter (judge/moderator), Anosh Dadabhoy, MS, Univ. of So. Cal.

Kai Wen Cheng, MD, Loma Linda Univ. Med. Ctr., David Tzou, MD, Univ. of Arizona and Dr. Daniel Lin (program chair)

Live Rockstar Action at the 
Resident's Rock 'n Roll Bowl

The meeting highlights would not be complete without mentioning the zaniest session: The Frank J. DeSantis Resident's Rock 'n Roll Bowl under the direction of rock'n Sia Daneshmand (SiaD) with his motley crew of homespun teams: The Bottled Bladders, Grapeful Dead, and The Cork Dorks. Congratulations to the winning team, The Cork Dorks, who will go on to represent us at the national AUA Resident Bowl in Washington DC! Good luck to team WSAUA!

Meeting Photo Caption Contest & More