Invited Speakers

	Brad A. Erickson, MD University of Iowa Healthcare		Dr. Erickson is a distinguished urologist with extensive expertise in functional urology. He currently serves as the Rubin H. Flocks Professor of Urology, Professor of Urology, and Director of Functional Urology at the University of Iowa. He has a robust educational background and has completed rigorous training in both urology and general surgery. His fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, further honed his skills in trauma and reconstructive urology. In his clinical practice, Dr. Erickson is dedicated to providing comprehensive and compassionate care to his patients, focusing on improving their quality of life. As a leader in his field, Dr. Erickson continues to contribute significantly to urological research and education.


	Khurshid Ghani, MBCHB, MS, FRCS University of Michigan		Dr Khurshid Ghani is a Professor of Urology, at the University of Michigan, and Director of the Michigan Urological Surgery Collaborative (MUSIC), a physician-led quality initiative comprising over 260 urologists and 46 urology practices in Michigan, and four centers outside Michigan. Dr. Ghani completed urology training in Edinburgh and London. In 2011, he was awarded a Urology Foundation scholarship to learn robotic surgery at Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, following which he joined the University of Michigan in 2013. Dr Ghani’s research focuses on endoscopic stone surgery and health services research. He is the Course Director of an international symposium - Developments in Ureteroscopic Stone Treatment (D.U.S.T.) - which has exposed hundreds of urologists to advanced techniques in ureteroscopy. He is part of a team that has extramural funding to study laser lithotripsy in the laboratory, which has produced over 30 original studies, and trained 9 research fellows. He has been involved in medical device development, and has one patent under commercialization. Within MUSIC, Dr Ghani is the principal investigator of two randomized clinical trials assessing patient quality of life and healthcare utilization after ureteroscopy: BLUES (funded by Coloplast, $500,000) and SOUL (funded by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, $3.1 million). He is an Assistant Editor for the Journal of Urology, and serves on the AUA Data Committee, and editorial board of Nature Reviews Urology.


	Victor W. Nitti, MD UCLA Heath		Victor W. Nitti, MD - Urology - Westwood Urology \| UCLA Health Professor of Urology and Obstetrics and Gynecology, Chief of Urogynecology and Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery (URPS) and Fellowship Director for that ACGME accredited program. Dr. Nitti also holds the Shlomo Raz Chair in Urology. He completed his medical degree at the University of Rochester and Rutgers New Jersey Medical, completed his urology residency at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn, NY and then completed a fellowship in female urology, neurourology and reconstructive urology at UCLA. Prior to coming to UCLA, Dr. Nitti was Professor of Urology and Obstetrics and Gynecology and Vice Chairman of Urology at New York University Langone Medical Center where he was also the URPS fellowship director. He is an authority in urodynamic techniques, medical and surgical therapies for urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, female pelvic reconstructive surgery and voiding dysfunction.


	Jay D. Raman, MD, FACS, FRCS Penn State Health, Milton Hershey Medical Center		Jay D. Raman, MD, FACS, FRCS(Glasg) is Professor and Chair of Urology at the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. He received his undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1997 and graduated AOA from Cornell University Medical College in 2001. Dr. Raman completed his Urology Residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital - Cornell Medical Center followed by a Fellowship in Laparoscopic and Endourology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Dr. Raman has been an attending physician at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center since 2008. He was promoted to Associate Professor (2011) and Professor (2016) of Surgery. He served as Division Chief of Urology from 2015 – 2020 prior to becoming the Chair of the Department of Urology in 2021. Dr. Raman’s clinical practice focuses on robotic-assisted surgery for upper and lower tract urologic cancers. His basic science research centers on infectious complications following prostate needle biopsy, while his major clinical research efforts revolve around staging and therapy for upper-tract urothelial carcinoma as well as complications of urologic surgery. To date, he has co-authored over 400 manuscripts, book chapters, and editorials and serves on the editorial board for three journals and as a reviewer for 12 journals. He has served as principal investigator on over 10 prospective clinical trials funded by federal, foundation, and industry sources. Dr. Raman is currently Chair of the American Urologic Association Office of Education responsible for the educational materials of over 15,000 members throughout the country. He is also the Past-President of the Mid-Atlantic AUA section and serves as the Program Chair on the Advisory Council of Urology within the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Raman has lived with his wife and three children in Hershey, PA for 16 years.