In today's medical climate, every specialty has to adapt and chart a course for the future. At Southeast Urology Network (SUN), evolving with technology and the treatments they provide is key to survival. By offering more office-based procedures and diversifying treatment options, their two clinics – in East Memphis and Southaven – are able to streamline care, making it more accessible and efficient for patients.

 

Partner with SUN, urologist and urological surgeon Mark Saslawsky, MD, shares his perspective of where men's health is today and how his specialty fits into the picture.

 

Urology has been very innovative and been able to adapt. When I came out of residency, we made all our money in the hospital doing surgery. Now most of our business is office based and outpatient. The reason why we invest in technology and EMR and being able to provide services in the office is because it's more efficient. I think you're beginning to see more doctors and talks from physicians about prostate cancer and overactive bladder and we try to share our experiences with doing office-based procedures and try to adjust their diminishing incomes by providing different services.

 

Most of what we do nowadays is outpatient surgery. We're partners with 15 other urologists and an ambulatory surgery center that just services urology patients. 

 

Also, in my practice I do a lot of female urology; with infertility, as well as in males.

 

We do urodynamics in the office, procedures for prostate, ultrasound, things that would typically be managed or shipped out, we are centralizing and able to provide those in one place.

 

Prostate cancer has always been a problem and will continue to be a problem. I think the biggest trend that we've seen in the availability of treatment and the diagnosis of prostate cancer, is the trend to getting prostate cancer at a much earlier stage and the variety of options for treatment.

 

The majority of prostate cancers we're finding nowadays are not palpable. They're sub-clinical and not causing any symptoms but we're detecting them early because of the PSA. Our options for treatment have vastly expanded.

 

For men's health, the most important thing about erectile dysfunction is the realization that it's the tip of the iceberg, that it's a vascular disease. The development of ED is the expression of early vascular disease and that often times it can be the driving force that brings men into medical care that may not otherwise have seen a doctor for any other reason. It is a driving force for their early diagnosis of hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and early coronary artery disease. 

 

The emphasis has been on prostate cancer, not just the benign enlargement of the prostate. The vast majority of men will develop enlargement of the prostate over their lifetime but only about one in seven will develop prostate cancer. The symptoms of enlarged prostate are under treated. Probably about only a quarter of the men with enlarged prostate seek treatment for it and get medication. Ultimately it can lead to greater costs and hospitalizations if not treated. Along with the treatments for prostate cancer, there are very many minimally invasive treatments for enlarged prostate and the medical therapies have been quite a bit better.

 

I think that EMR and accessibility to medical records and sharing among physicians helps us provide cohesive healthcare for patients and collaborate on providing extensive and comprehensive care to patients.

 

It's very challenging to run the business. We try to invest in technologies that make it easier for our patients to get healthcare and for us to provide it but you can't invest in those technologies if the reimbursement gets cut out from underneath you.

 

I think most physicians would like to see more patients have accessible healthcare and insurance to back up the healthcare so they could see doctors who can practice efficient medicine. Certainly if we can make healthcare more accessible we can practice more preventive medicine.

 

Urology is interesting. I'm very fortunate that I picked a field that is constantly evolving with technology and evolving to adapt itself to the changing insurance and the aging male population. We're always looking at new things and evaluating and finding what works for our patients.