{"id":12726,"date":"2026-05-14T15:13:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T19:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/urology\/?p=12726"},"modified":"2026-05-14T15:20:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T19:20:23","slug":"auas-science-and-quality-council-driving-care-transformation-in-urology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/urology\/auas-science-and-quality-council-driving-care-transformation-in-urology\/","title":{"rendered":"AUA’s Science and Quality Council: Driving Care Transformation in Urology"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The American Urological Association (AUA), the largest international professional organization for the discipline of urology, convenes this week in Washington, DC for the 2026 Annual Meeting.\u00a0 This marks a transition in leadership, with Dr. Matthew Nielsen<\/a> completing his four year term as Chair of the AUA\u2019s Science and Quality Council<\/a> (SQC), providing strategic oversight to shape and execute on a broad agenda spanning the AUA\u2019s Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (QIPS<\/a>), Data, and Guidelines Committees.<\/p>\n

The work of SQC intersects with initiatives across AUA\u2019s mission areas. One foundational effort in this period was development of the National Quality Agenda and Strategies for Urologic Practice<\/strong><\/a>, authored by Nielsen in collaboration with leaders from the American Board of Urology. This document articulates priorities and strategies to guide quality activities for the next decade, detailed in an AUANews article<\/a> and an AUA Inside Tract podcast episode<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Enhancing Diagnostic Excellence<\/strong><\/a> is a key priority area in the Quality Agenda, defining several new directions for the SQC in this period, disseminated through AUA publications<\/a> and podcasts<\/a>.\u00a0 Yang and colleagues (2021<\/a>) define diagnostic excellence as\u00a0\u201can optimal process to attain an accurate and precise explanation about a patient\u2019s condition. An optimal process would be timely, cost-effective, convenient, and understandable to the patient. An accurate and precise diagnosis gains clinical value insofar as it leads to better choices in treatment<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 As SQC Chair, Nielsen led several efforts related to Diagnostic Excellence in prostate cancer care<\/a>.\u00a0 These include resources to support person-centered care in prostate cancer screening<\/a>, supported by a grant from the Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS), as well as a multidisciplinary QI summit on improving the quality of prostate MRI<\/a>, supported by his fellowship in Diagnostic Excellence from the National Academy of Medicine<\/a>. \u00a0Alongside this work, Nielsen served on the National Quality Forum (NQF) Diagnostic Excellence Committee<\/a>, contributing to the development of cross-cutting quality measures in this area.<\/p>\n

Below, we summarize activities within each committee during the period of Dr Nielsen\u2019s SQC leadership.<\/p>\n

The QIPS committee<\/strong><\/a> stewards a broad portfolio of activities related to performance improvement.\u00a0 These efforts provide instrumental support for members\u2019 QI activities, including in this period publication of a QI Project Guide<\/a> as well as playbooks for topic-specific QI initiatives in the Engage with Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (E-QIPS) guides<\/a> and a webinar on Using Lean Methodology to Increase Clinic Efficiency<\/a>. \u00a0\u00a0QIPS also stewards a portfolio of urology-specific quality measures incorporated into federal quality payment programs. AUA led a multi-stakeholder collaboration to draft a Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) Value Pathway (MVP) for Urology.\u00a0 During this period, AUA produced a Healthcare Performance Measurement Primer<\/a>, with leadership from UNC faculty and QIPS committee member David Friedlander<\/a>, toolkits for MIPS<\/a> and MVPs<\/a>, and a \u00a0webinar<\/a> focused on the new Urology-specific MVP.\u00a0 The QIPS committee also convened multidisciplinary QI Summits in Palliative Care (2022), Telehealth in Urology (2023) and Diagnostic Excellence (2024), with toolkits, resources, and summit proceeding papers available as enduring materials on the AUA website<\/a>. \u00a0Most recently, AUA QIPS leaders secured funding from the Council of Medical Specialty Societies<\/a> to promote adoption of the Age-Friendly Health Systems 4Ms Framework\u2014What Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility\u2014into routine practice.<\/p>\n

Under the leadership of UNC faculty Ray Tan<\/a>, committee Chair, the Data Committee<\/strong><\/a> has driven the field forward with a variety of efforts.\u00a0 The AUA Quality Registry<\/a> (AQUA), approved by CMS as a Qualified Clinical Data Registry, provides unique insights on real-world care and a vehicle for members to identify opportunities for quality improvement. AQUA includes more than 13 million unique patients, with 54 physician performance measures, including 16 measures that are urology-specific, stewarded by AUA and the QIPS committee.\u00a0 AUA partnered with the American Board of Urology to facilitate potential receipt of QI Attestation credit for the Continuing Urologic Certification (CUC) program for those who actively engage with the AQUA Registry. \u00a0The AUA Census<\/a> provides unique insights into urology practice and the urology workforce<\/a>, and has provided invaluable data to support AUA\u2019s policy and advocacy efforts. \u00a0A new effort under Dr Tan\u2019s leadership was the launch of AUA\u2019s Data Research Program (DRP)<\/a>. \u00a0Towards the goal of democratizing access to AUA Data, The DRP launched in May 2023 with six projects awarded annually<\/a> since 2024.<\/p>\n

AUA\u2019s Guidelines are consistently identified by members as one of the most valued activities of the organization.\u00a0 Reflecting this, the Guidelines website<\/a> saw over 5 million views in this period; in addition, all Guidelines content is available in a Guidelines-at-a-Glance mobile app<\/a>.\u00a0 The latest development, announced just before the Annual Meeting, is a new partnership between AUA and OpenEvidence<\/a>, a leading AI-powered clinical decision support platform<\/a>, to expand the reach of AUA\u2019s evidence-based Guidelines at the point of care. \u00a0During this period, the Practice Guidelines Committee<\/strong><\/a> (PGC)<\/strong> published new Guidelines on Localized Prostate Cancer and Non-Ischemic Priapism (2022), Early Detection of Prostate Cancer and Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma (2023), Salvage Therapy for Prostate Cancer and Overactive Bladder (2024) and Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause<\/a> (2025).\u00a0 UNC faculty member Mary Beth Westerman<\/a> serves as a member of the PGC.<\/p>\n

One example of the SQC portfolio with AUA\u2019s advocacy efforts, a letter to FDA\u00a0 from AUA<\/a> co-authored by Dr Nielsen citing the GSM Guideline, played a key role in the national conversation leading to the FDA\u2019s removal of the black box warning on low-dose vaginal estrogen<\/a>. \u00a0Reflecting the rigor of the PGC\u2019s processes, the following Guidelines were formally updated during this period: Interstitial Cystitis\/Bladder Pain Syndrome, Recurrent UTIs in Women, and Vesicoureteral Reflux, Advanced Prostate Cancer, Stress Urinary Incontinence, Urethral Stricture, Testicular Cancer, Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia, Male Infertility, Non-Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer, Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer, Testosterone Deficiency, and Incontinence after Prostate Therapy.<\/p>\n

AT AUA 2026:<\/strong>
\nAUA staff recognized Dr. Nielsen’s leadership as Science and Quality Council Chair at the fall 2025 committee meetings. They shared an historic urology text book and cystoscope, now on display in the UNC Urology Department offices.\"\"<\/p>\n

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The American Urological Association (AUA), the largest international professional organization for the discipline of urology, convenes this week in Washington, DC for the 2026 Annual Meeting.\u00a0 This marks a transition in leadership, with Dr. Matthew Nielsen completing his four year term as Chair of the AUA\u2019s Science and Quality Council (SQC), providing strategic oversight to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58060,"featured_media":12728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAUA's Science and Quality Council: Driving Care Transformation in Urology | Department of 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