DAY 2 Blog (Sunday, June 12)
AUA Delegates, Drs. Hans Arora and Jason Jameson; AUA Resident/Fellow Section Delegate, Dr. Ruchika Talwar; and AUA Gallagher Scholar Dr. Brian Duty joined hundreds of physicians at the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates (HoD) 2022 Annual Meeting to consider resolutions and reports covering clinical practice, payment, medical education, and public health topics. Top issues at the meeting include reforming the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, delaying appropriate use criteria, telemedicine expansion, scope of practice and professional liability issues.
On Sunday, the AUA delegation participated in two more reference committee meetings covering issues related to Science & Technology and Medical Service. Dr. Arora testified in support of Resolution 101 Fertility Preservation Benefits for Active-Duty Military Personnel to encourage TRICARE to cover fertility preservation procedures and gamete preservation prior to deployment for active-duty military personnel. This aligns closely with the AUA’s longstanding advocacy work to address the disconnect between soldiers who fought for our country and were injured and their ability to access fertility treatment – the Veterans Administration has no permanent mechanism to cover this care.
Dr. Jameson rose to the microphone on Resolution 522 Encouraging Research of Testosterone and Pharmacological Therapies for Post-Menopausal Individuals with Decreased Libido and stressed the importance of sexual health being an integral component of overall Whole Health and welcomes further research into this area.
Dr. Talwar spoke in support of referring Resolution 525 Reforming the FDA Accelerated Approval Process, which expresses concerns regarding the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) accelerated approvals and post-marketing confirmatory trials. She pointed out for disease states including Non-muscle-invasive Bladder Cancer, the use of surrogate endpoints, such as complete response over OS, are important and allow for access to novel treatments that reduce recurrence rates in this currently localized but potentially very lethal malignancy. The AUA partners with the FDA to agree upon appropriate endpoints given these unique considerations. This resolution, if adopted with its current language, may have detrimental downstream effects on potential cancer treatments in urology’s patient populations. Referring the measure for future consideration would then allow the AMA to push for an informed, evidence based, and balanced solution to this important issue.
The reference committees will now provide the full House of Delegates with recommendations on the measures discussed over the last two days. The House resumes business tomorrow to begin reviewing and voting on relevant resolutions until the meeting concludes on June 15.
As a reminder, the AMA HoD is the principal policy-making body of the AMA. It represents the views and interests of a diverse group of member physicians from more than 170 societies. These delegates meet twice a year to establish policy on health, medical, professional and governance matters.
Read news from the day one here. Additional updates and final resolution outcomes will be posted to the Policy & Advocacy Brief blog.