Artsy Med: My AUA Experience

When I was in 1st year, this was one of my goals I've set,to be able to go to attend AUA. I was inspired by my senior residents before, they were talking of how inspiring it is to attend AUA. So nainggit ako in short.

The way I thought of how to get to AUA was to have a research paper for presentation. I submitted 4 research papers and only 1 was accepted for presentation. This is to let you have an idea of how difficult it is to get in.

So this year's AUA was held in San Francisco, California. I've never been to USA before, so I don't know what to expect either. I've always felt I'm doing something in my own effort when I go to these presentations. Even if I'm just relying on my parent's money for the expenses of the whole trip, I felt I was paying them in return in a way of presenting internationally. So I won't feel guilty that I'm spending their money despite being an adult already.

So we arrived to AUA convention 1 day before the main event to register. I was given an email beforehand already with QR code, which I printed and they will just scan it and my badge would have been printed. Good thing though that we arrived 1 day before, because during the main event, there were lots of guards/ushers and my parents couldn't get in to get pictures.

So here's my Japorms Pic with the logo, this was 1 day before the main event.

And here are my proud parents, I dedicate this achievement to you.

This is the Uro foundation, AUA membership, Uro Census area, here it's like the Urology community worldwide participate in charitable cause.

I participated in Uro Census, wherein you key in your details, add some details of practices in your country and then you get freebies such as t-shirt and sunglasses. This t-shirt then became my AUA souvenir, since I didn't buy the souvenir in the AUA store.

So here's the legit outfit for the convention. This is day 1 already. Too bad my parents were not allowed already inside since they did not pay for the badge, so used my handy dandy selfie stick this time.

The convention itself was held in the different buildings of the convention center, so the attendees were really spread out.

To give you a glimpse of how massive the convention hall is, below is a picture of just one of the plenary. There were multiple plenaries done simultaneously and can you imagine this is just a portion of it? Just how many urologists are there? Can you count from the picture below?

Then lunch came, so you just go the industry-sponsored symposium to eat, because it's expensive in San Francisco.

Below is one of the lunch break sessions, I was lucky to be able to meet these well-known Filipino urologists, from left to right: Dr. Petero, Dr. Abraham, Dr. Nitisasmito. Dr Petero is practicing in Guam, Dr. Abraham in Philippines, and Dr Nitisasmito in Indonesia. (actually I'm not sure if Dr Nitisasmito has Filipino roots, but all I know is that he's a product of UST Urology).

We'll now move to the research presentation, I presented in the moderated poster category. For the first time I knew no one in the room, no fellow Filipino urology residents nor consultants who can give moral support and take my picture. To the point that I actually asked the presenter after me if he can take my picture. I guess this is a glimpse of the adult life? hehe.

What's interesting about this presentation is that even consultants presented here. I experienced presenting in Hong Kong, Australia and Japan, and in all of those presentations, the residents were the presentors. However, for this case, did you see the one on stage sitting as a reactor? The one on the left most part. He actually presented as well a research paper! Talk about even consultants and reactors presenting here as well. I felt a sense of equality for some reason.

Below is a picture of the poster. I printed this from Philippines then brought it there to USA. They offered poster printing service, but I did not avail of that because it's too expensive compared to the printing services in the Philippines.