Fostering Excellence and Innovation

• Prostate Cancer Screening: For over 18 years, our faculty and trainees participate in free prostate cancer screening initiatives throughout New York in Queens, Brooklyn, Harlem, and Manhattan. These efforts screen over five hundred patients assigned male at birth annually for prostate cancer.
• PrideFest: Every summer, the Department of Urology participate at the Weill Cornell Medicine booth at NYC Pride March. Here, faculty and trainees provide safe sex outreach education and materials to the community.
• WCM Wellness Series: In partnership with the New York Public Library, our faculty participate in various seminar opportunities throughout the year, educating the public on various urologic conditions and how the Department of Urology provides care. The department has participated in both virtual and hybrid events; for example, in February 2024, the URPS team held a Love Your Bladder panel event at the Brooklyn Public Library to empower women to learn about bladder health conditions and treatment options. 

• WCM Women in Urology: Quarterly social gatherings designed to support female residents, fellows, and faculty in Urology through community. All are welcome to attend.
• Sub-Internship in the Department of Urology Program: Supported by the School of Medicine this elective program is intended for fourth year medical students who are interested in pursuing a career in Urology, which will take place over four weeks and allows students to gain hands-on experience and learning within the Department of Urology. Learn more about our program, click here. To learn more about WCM’s Acting Internship (AI) Elective Program, click here.
• Urology CORE Program: The Urology CORE (Creating Opportunities in Research Engagement) Student Summer Research Program is a unique opportunity for students from medical schools without a home Urology program or access to Urology research to complete an eight-week mentored research program. Learn more here.

• Cultural complications M&M: Meetings held quarterly during department-wide grand rounds to focus on topics in research and quality improvement through the lens of excellence in innovation. Faculty, staff, and trainees engage in case-based discussions centered around implicit bias, stereotypes, and inclusion in academic Urology. 
• Community Engagement and Clinical Site Rotations: Our mission is to provide urologic care to all residents of New York City. Our urology trainees rotate at a variety of clinical sites which provide exposure to the cultural considerations necessary for caring for a diverse population. 
  1. Weill Cornell Medical Center (Upper East Side of Manhattan) is the primary rotation site for trainees.
  2. Brooklyn Methodist Hospital (BMH) is in the historic Park Slope neighborhood. BMH’s Center for Community Health opened in 2021 and serves as a major catchment hospital for greater Brooklyn, providing unprecedented access to multi-disciplinary, specialized outpatient care. Two PGY-5 urology residents rotate here per rotation (3 months inpatient and 3 months outpatient). They participate in hundreds of outpatient, endoscopic and robotic procedures. 
  3. NewYork-Presbyterian Queens resides within the heart of Flushing, Queens – one of the most diverse neighborhoods of New York. This rotation site serves as a unique opportunity to provide tertiary-level care spanning the gamut of urology to a diverse patient population in a community setting. 
  4. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, located across the street from the main campus, is an internationally recognized cancer center where trainees work alongside world-renowned faculty on complex, interdisciplinary surgical cases. PGY-2 urology residents rotate here along with PGY-6 urology residents, who serve Chief Urology residents for 3-month blocks.
  5. During their time on general surgery, interns also rotate at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Jamaica, Queens. This is a 4–6-week rotation at one of the busiest Level 1 trauma centers in New York.

Our faculty and trainees have made significant contributions to establish The Department of Urology at Weill Cornell Medicine as a leader in the field of healthcare disparities. We aim to decrease barriers to care for all patients. Below are some recent contributions.

• Nguyen, David-Dan, et. al. Effect of Surgeon and Facility Volume on Outcomes of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Surgery: Implications of Disparities in Access to Care at High-Volume Centers
• Zhu, Alec, et. al. Beyond the AJR: Racial Disparities in Prostate MRI Utilization
• Basourakos, Spyridon P., et. al. Harm-to-Benefit of Three Decades of Prostate Cancer Screening in Black Men
• Gaffney, Christopher D., et. al. Increasing Utilization of MRI Before Prostate Biopsy in Black and Non-Black Men: An Analysis of the SEER-Medicare Cohort

• AUA Initiatives

• AAMC Initiatives

• Weill Cornell Urology CORE Creating Opportunities for Research Engagement
• Exploring the Visiting Scholars Resources Database | Students & Residents