Female Urology
Caroline Dowling, MD (she/her/hers)
Monash University
Sandra Elmer, MBBS BMedSci FRACS (she/her/hers)
Royal Melbourne Hospital
Anne Pelletier Cameron, MD (she/her/hers)
MD FRCSC FPMRS
University of Michigan
Course Description: This course will provide the learner with an interactive overview of complex female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery cases. The course is based on our monthly multidisciplinary meeting where 15 subspecialists bring their challenging female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery cases for discussion. The course will move sequentially from recognition to diagnosis and management of difficult clinical problems using a case-based approach. There will be a particular emphasis on topics including mesh removal, fistulae and complex urethral surgery including diverticulae. This is anticipated to be an interactive session with the audience and is expected to generate lively debate and discussion. To help facilitate this, participants will be encouraged to bring their own cases, and one of the faculty will use a roving microphone to move through the audience and encourage contribution. In addition, a short set of notes on concepts of diagnosis and management of the three main topics above will allow for a flipped classroom approach. Initial discussion will be general, to include any super keen residents in the audience viz. what would the general urologist do if faced with a patient presenting with one of these conditions? What are the appropriate first steps in diagnosis and workup? Are there simple first steps in management? Then the discussion will move quickly to the more subspecialist management, and this is where the course is pitched. Using operative videos and robust and collegiate argument between faculty based on evidence and experience, we will cover the tips and tricks, and “how to” approach these cases. The faculty are all subspecialists with experience in vaginal and robotic surgery and are the chair and participants in our local multidisciplinary meeting discussion of such cases, and it is from this library of work that they will draw the material.