Blogs

Day 5 Blog (Wednesday, June 15)

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. View our previous updates from the meeting.

On June 15, the AUA delegates spent the final day in the general session where the House debated and voted on various measures relating to Reference Committee A (Medical Service) and Reference Committee E (Science & Technology). Here are some of the reports and resolutions of interest: 

• Resolution 503 – Pharmacy Benefit Managers and Drug Shortages (New York)
• The House adopted an alternative resolution urging the continued evaluation and root causes (e.g., evaluation of manufacturer and distributor practices, access to drugs, pricing) of drug shortages, including the impact of group purchasing organizations and pharmacy benefit managers. Urology is certainly not immune to consistent drug shortages, thus the AUA’s delegates welcomed debate on this particular measure.

• Resolution 522 – Encouraging Research of Testosterone and Pharmacological Therapies for Post-Menopausal Individuals with Decreased Libido(Medical Students Section)
  • The House adopted Resolution 522, in which the AUA spoke on during reference committee deliberations. In particular, Dr. Jameson stressed the importance of sexual health being an integral component of overall Whole Health and welcomed further research into this area.
    
    
• Resolution 525 – Reforming the FDA Accelerated Approval Process (Medical Students Section)
  • The House adopted an amended version of this measure expressing concerns regarding the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s accelerated approvals and post-marketing confirmatory trials. “Justifications for the use of surrogate endpoints used to demonstrate clinical benefit” was removed from the original language, which is an issue the AUA delegation referenced earlier in the meeting when Dr. Talwar 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.