Clinical Assistant Professor of Urology
Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
Anatomic Pathology; Anatomy; Andrology; Cancer Screening; Cancer Treatment and Prevention; Clinical Research; Community Health Research; Education; Health Disparities Research; Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors; Medical Education Research; Military & Veterans Health/Healthcare; Minimally Invasive Surgery; Oncology; Racial Disparities Health Research; Robotic Surgery; Sexual Dysfunction; Sexual Medicine; Surgery - Laparoscopic; Surgery – Minimally Invasive and Robotic; Urinary Tract Infection; Urology
My main clinical practice in Urology is at the Veteran‘s Administration Western New York Healthcare System in Buffalo, NY, where I am the Urology Division chief and UB residency site director. It is a high volume practice, with 2 full time and 2 part time urologists, with a variety of cases of general urology and urologic oncology, ranging from minor procedures to complex major cancer cases. Being fellowship trained in Surgical Oncology in Urology at the Roswell Park Cancer Center, my special interests are urologic oncology and robotic surgeries. Urologic Oncology comprises about 40% of our practice. Residents enjoy a considerable level of autonomy in the clinic and operating room while closely supervised and directed by the more senior residents and urology Staff. Medical students enjoy their early hands-on experience and are part of all teaching activities.
In addition to my contribution to the formal didactic weekly conferences and presentations, and daily informal clinical training during patient care, I believe in the efficacy of small group teaching. I am a fan of the NCCN and AUA guidelines, AUA update series, and the SASP MCQ exercises. Those resources are available for us and are used for educational activities during a rotation at the Buffalo VA Hospital. In fact, an important project of mine is dividing the current SASP questions by subject to help residents prepare, and going through those one topic at a time, in an interactive small group way, during the first half of the academic year. This has proven to markedly improve the in-service exam grades in 2019 as compared to prior year. This was on hold during the pandemic and was resumed 2022. It is important also to be open to resident's needs and suggestions during their rotations. New ideas are always welcome.
My research interests are oncology, mostly prostate, bladder and kidney cancers, as well as general urology, complications, and disparity in care. We try to involve any interested medical student and resident in any project of their interest. This usually results in multiple abstracts that get presented at national meetings every year and sometimes publications.