needed to stabilize the clinical practice which feeds clinical teaching material to the urology residents. Two: We needed to develop a
partnership with the community urology group, First Urology, for
a healthy academic relationship. Three: after three years, we needed to hire an accomplished researcher capable of taking our division to the next level,” said Dr. Ankem. “And that’s what we did.”
gram while collaborating with local urologic physicians in public
and private practices. Ganesh Rao, MD, practices general urology
with interests in urologic cancers and prosthetic surgery for the
Louisville based organization First Urology, PSC. A friend of Dr.
Ankem, Dr. Rao was actually one of the last residents to graduate
from the Urology program prior to its disintegration in 2001.
Stabilizing the practice meant balancing the checkbook.
“Though I had a lot of experience working in academic centers, I
didn’t have any personal experience starting a practice and how to
finance it, run it, staff it, how to handle the legal aspects,” said Dr.
Ankem. However, he wasn’t alone.
“Our goal was to have a public and private partnership,” Dr. Rao
said, explaining First Urology’s symbiotic relationship with the
University. “It’s really hard to find qualified people, and it costs a
lot of money. There’s no reason to go get somebody with particular expertise if there are already two people in town who qualify.
We’re not here to compete. We’re here to work together to make
this community a better place.” Residents in the urology program
work under Dr. Ankem, Dr. Messer and Dr. Rao among others
to receive a multi-faceted educational experience. “With Dr. Rao
on one side and us on the other, we were able to put this program
together quickly and effectively and take it to the next level,” said
Dr. Ankem, who also serves as director of the residency program.
The University Physicians Association as well as the U of L Physicians group lent a helping hand, financing the practice until Dr.
Ankem and his team could pay back the loans. Meanwhile, U of
L assisted with salary lines for clinical urologists. Jewish Medical
Center and the VA Medical Center participated as well, while Kosair Children’s Hospital gave support for the hiring of a pediatric
urologist.
“We paid everything back. We’re one of the few practices completely in the black at this time,” said Ankem. In just three years,
Dr. Ankem hired four staff members including his urologic oncologist partner Jamie Messer, MD, Pediatric Urologist Daniel DaJusta, MD, Urologist Sandhya Rao, MD, MCh, and the new leader
of the Urology Research Department, Chendil Damodaran, PhD.
“I’m very fond of Dr. Messer. He came here and shared my vision. He understood the limited resources and high expectations.
We gave him the urologic oncology section and he ran with it,”
said Dr. Ankem.
Together, the two have spearheaded some of the first minimally
invasive robotic assisted urologic surgeries in Kentucky including
radical cystectomies (removal of bladder – usually for cancer) and
nephrectomies (removal of the kidney). In just a few years, they’ve
now performed dozens of similar operations. In addition, the pediatric urology department offers minimally invasive surgeries for
children.
“This is really something we can bring to the Commonwealth,”
said Dr. Messer, speaking about daVinci Robotic Surgery. “I really
feel patients recover faster. I think there’s less post-operative pain
and shorter hospital stays. And these surgeries were something
nobody in the commonwealth was doing before Dr. Ankem and
myself got here.”
For Dr. Messer, the biggest challenge the new Urology Department faced was a lack of trust from community physicians who
had lost that referral source while the university’s urology division
had been in the wilderness.
“We had to rebuild that trust. Yes, there was not a department
here, but we’re available now. Things are stable. Referring urologists want to know there’s some stability. They want to know who
they’re sending patients to and they want assurance that they’re
sending patients to a competent physician,” Dr. Messer said.
One of the strongest ways to build the competency of the Urology Department was to consistently improve the residency pro-
The School of Medicine’s Urology Department graduated its
first new residents in 2013 and a second class in 2014, thanks in
part to the collaboration between the University and First Urology. Dr. Rao hopes and expects these positive changes will lead to a
greater respect in Louisville’s urologic physicians from across the
country.
“We need to become a program known around the country for
training good residents. It has a good reputation but it can always
be better,” he said. “Ultimately, I want Louisville to become a major referral center.
In addition to the strides in residency, robotics and the hiring
of U of L’s first urologic researcher, the new department is also
responsible for the multi-disciplinary urologic cancer clinic at the
Brown Cancer Center.
“This allows