Invitation

It is my great pleasure to invite you to our 12th UroSchool that is going to be held in the village of Portaria. The main elements featuring the identity of UroSchool always remain the same. Its educational principles can be summarized in the following points:

limited number of participating Urologist Trainees
Academic Teachers as Trainers
presentations focusing on Problem-Solving Learning based on Evidence-Based Medicine and Patient-Centered Care far more time dedicated to Discussion than to Teaching.

Until last year the Uroschool program included sessions presenting Articles of the Year that have changed our clinical practice and News from major Oncology Conferences, Interactive Seminars, UroSurgery Secrets and Virtual Patients. This year, we have added “UroOlympics” with ‘Functional Disorders’ as its first subject. Among others, highly significant topics are the treatment of prostate cancer in young men, secrets in the treatment of infections and prevention of sepsis, coexistence of prostatitis and erectile dysfunction. Special focus is placed on how to cope with "classic" failures in therapeutic treatments, such as unsuccessful pyeloplasty, varicocele with severe oligoasthenospermia, urinary retention after transurethral prostatectomy, as well as various ‘nightmares’ in Endourology.

We look forward to welcoming you at our annual UroSchool in Portaria that YOU yourselves have established as an institution in the Training of Urologists!

With kind regards,
Dimitris Hatzichristou

What IS NOT Uroschool?

UroSchool IS NOT a conference, symposium, seminar or workshop.

• There are NO presentations of research papers

• There are NO satellite symposia

• There is NO opening ceremony with official greetings

• There is NO social events program

What IS UroSchool?

UroSchool is a meeting of people who constantly seek knowledge. They love knowledge so much that they decide to let their families and close their private offices for 4 days, and get together in a special indoor venue from 9 am to 10 pm in order to listen carefully, think, share experiences, reflect on their mistakes, get evaluated and evaluate, and be exposed to their colleagues. UroSchool is an educational/training process based on medical thought far more thorough than simply ‘quoting’ knowledge. The Participants know that, when leaving UroSchool, they will have gained substantial knowledge out of this entire sharing experience; knowledge that they can use and apply in their medical practice from the very next day. And this makes them want to come back next year!

On the other hand, UroSchool Trainers are fully aware that their role is not the classical role of a teacher. It requires a lot of preparation, few ‘insightful’ slides, many questions for the trainees and, above all, an ‘open mind’ so as to be willing to listen to different views and probably even be convinced to revise their own as a result of a highly constructive and fruitful dialogue. Therefore, every Trainer needs to get thoroughly prepared, given that their ‘students’ know a lot, anticipate a lot, evaluate strictly and definitely set the bar very high.

UroSchool is hard to describe as a concept. It is a dynamic process that matures more and more every year to meet the needs of its 150 participants; it is actually the participants themselves who determine the content of the UroSchool program. And that is exactly why the number of trainees is limited because we want every one of you to have the time you deserve to participate, interact and give your own ‘color’ to this learning process.

Who is UroSchool addressed to?

UroSchool is addressed exclusively to Urologists who, despite their heavy daily schedule, have shown over time that they are constantly seeking new knowledge, and that is why they have embraced this institution. UroSchool is particularly addressed to younger colleagues who unfortunately nowadays have very few opportunities for Continuing Education. A limited number of places is provided for Residents. Through tutorials, interactive seminars, working groups, step-by-step discussions on surgical techniques and their complications, a great effort is made to reach consensus in different diagnostic and therapeutic dilemmas, always taking into account Evidence-Based Medicine and clinical experience. Special emphasis is given to the interactive communication between Trainees and Trainers, and therefore significant amount of time is allocated for discussion.

TRAINING MODULES

URO Gold

New scientific data are published in scientific journals every month. Many of these articles have a direct impact on our daily practice. Within the Urologists' heavy daily schedule, these articles may escape their attention. The Moderators and Speakers choose for you the most useful clinical published papers of the past year and present them to you, pointing out the changes they have brought to everyday practice. Once the articles are presented, follows discussion about how these new items of knowledge can practically be integrated into our clinical work from the very next day; in other words, how research is ‘interpreted’ into our clinical practice, which is actually the motto of ISUD. Every morning a different thematic field is presented so that the day begins with new knowledge!

URO Skills

Simple daily Urological manipulations are usually not discussed at scientific conferences. However, these are issues that Urologists are discussing with each other on a daily basis, because they often seem simple but, in fact, they are not. UroSchool always focuses on simple and everyday issues. Therefore, we are discussing difficulties that we may have encountered during the first year of our Residency, but sometimes are still troubling us today and may keep troubling us till the end of our professional career.

Interactive Seminars

The Interactive Seminars deal with various issues concerning the Urologist in an integrated way. They have a duration of 90 minutes, with half of the time dedicated for questions and comments from the audience. This interactive process is the ideal way to convey both knowledge and clinical skills; it is somehow like a ‘final dress rehearsal’ before applying the newly acquired knowledge in clinical practice the very next day.

URO Secrets

There is no doubt that Medicine is making strides. It is estimated that over 50% of the knowledge taught to University students will be obsolete by the time they get their degree. In the face of rapid advancements, doctrines of decades may be proven wrong, and whole chapters in books are revised and written all over again. On the other hand, clinical experience continually discovers new "smart" ways of clinical manipulations that unfortunately may never be recorded in books. Therefore, UroSecrets serve a dual purpose: introduce us with completely new ‘chapters’ of Medicine that are now beginning to have an impact on our daily practice, and teach us the ‘unrecorded’ secrets of experience.

Virtual Patients

The ‘Virtual patient’ session is the participants’ most favorite part. More and more frequently medical practice is faced with dilemmas, and the patient asks for a second opinion. The problem lies in the conflicting views of physicians. Is there only one therapeutic option? And what role does every individual patient's profile play in whether we follow or not follow the guidelines?

URO Olympics

Three distinguished colleagues prepare 10 questions and the trainees are asked to answer electronically. In the end, the correct answers will be documented. The three trainees with the most correct answers will be invited by ISUD at Andrology Update 2020.

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