BOSTON – The American Urological Association (AUA) Annual meeting was held at the Boston Convention Center on May 12-16, 2017. The meeting was presided over by Dr. Richard K. Babayan, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Urology at Boston University School of Medicine, the first Armenian urologist to become president of the AUA in its 112-year history.
The meeting was attended by more than 16,000 participants from 37 countries including the Republic of Armenia. During the course of the meeting 32 Armenian urologists gathered to discuss ways that diasporan urologists could assist in the development of standards for urologic care within the Republic of Armenia.
Dr. Babayan summarized the activity of a small delegation of diasporan Armenian urologists who attended the 20th anniversary of the Armenian Association of Urology (AAU) in Yerevan in September, 2017. Joining Dr. Babayan in Yerevan were Drs. Garo Tertzakian, from Santa Ana, California, Stephen Boorjian, from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, Peter Boorjian, from Glen Ridge, New Jersey and Paul Merguerian from Seattle, Washington. At that meeting in Yerevan, Dr. Babayan announced that through the generous donation of diasporan Armenian urologists, a fund was established to provide free on-line membership to the American Urological Association for all Armenian urology residents in training. This membership provides all of the educational materials available to US residents including the core curriculum, AUA guidelines, videos, The Journal of Urology and a host of educational materials within the AUA University and the AUA Office of Education to advance their training.
At the Boston AUA meeting, diasporan urologists renewed their pledges to continue to assist the Republic of Armenia in advancing urologic training and practice standards and bring new and advanced urologic techniques to the people of Armenia. In addition to the educational efforts for resident training in Armenia, the group will organize efforts to provide state of the art lectures, seminars and demonstrations of surgical techniques to practicing urologists in Armenia and will work closely with the Armenian Association of Urology, which was represented in Boston by its President, Dr. Artur Grabsky. The diasporan Armenian urologists attending the AUA included Sero Andonian from Montreal, Armen Aprikian from Montreal, Chant Balian from France, Kevin Basralian, from New Jersey, Jean Pierre Berberian from France, Stephen Boorjian from Minnesota, Armen Dikranian from California, Leo Doumanian, from Los Angeles, George Haleblian from Boston, Zareh Kassardjian from Beirut, Garegin Khachatryan from Qatar, Bill Larchian from Cleveland, George Kasyan from Moscow, Vigen Malkhasyan from Moscow, Paul Merguerian from Seattle, Mikhail Mosoyan from St. Petersberg,, Alice and Hrant Semerjian from Washington, DC, and Margarett Shnorhavorian from Seattle. Several dozen other urologists have offered their assistance but were unable to attend the meeting in Boston.
A highlight of the annual meeting was the Awards dinner, where Dr. Babayan had the honor of presenting Dr. Tertzakian with a AUA Presidential Citation in recognition of his 30 years of philanthropic efforts in Armenia.
