FAREWELL FROM THE CHAIR & MESSAGE FROM INTERIM CHAIR

Farewell from the Chair

Dear UW Urology Community,

Announcing the end of my tenure as Chair was one thing, and completing the task another. As I begin packing my office, my greatest emotion is one of gratitude for the trust that you have bestowed on me as Chair for the past 16 years. And a close second is appreciation that the work provided profound opportunities to interact with so many people across so many contexts.

The goals never wavered: world class patient care; high impact research; and educating for the future. If there was one word that was always relevant, it was innovation. I hopefully provided constancy and conveyed optimism about our enterprise together. Because you all drove the innovation, I step down as excited as ever about the future potential of the Department. 

Patient Care/Centers of Excellence

There are too many faculty, trainees, and staff to individually thank for their unwavering commitment to putting patient care ahead of all other priorities. Building strong alignment with our partner organizations advanced our mission immensely. The clinical impact of the Department has been enhanced through work with UW Medicine to open its Men’s Health Center, Kidney Stone Center, Pelvic Health Center, initiate multi-specialty genital gender affirming surgery, and relocate and expand services to the UWMC NW and Eastside campuses. In collaboration with the Fred Hutch Cancer Center, our urological oncologists introduced multidisciplinary urological oncology clinics for all GU cancers, and serve the largest number of cancer patients in the region. Thanks to the Division of Pediatric Urology, Seattle Children’s Hospital received Center of Excellence (COE) designations for bladder exstrophy and congenital adrenal hyperplasia; reached #5 in US News; and provide access to the entire WWAMI pediatric community. Our urology faculty and residents at Puget Sound VA helped maximize the impact of Urology including the first active robotics program in VISN 20 while providing essential subspecialty care for veterans in stones, andrology, and female pelvic medicine.

Inclusion/Belonging

Supporting our people throughout their entire time in the Department, whether 1 month or 30 years, is essential to our success. We started a faculty mentorship program to mirror the one for our residents, strengthened the experience for our UW and Visiting Sub-Interns, and built data and statistical consultation services available to the entire Department. Implementing an EDI committee and reaffirming our core values of belonging, integrity and innovation has helped sustain our goal of recruiting a diverse workforce and assuring equity in access to urologic care. Examples of our progress include recurring EDI Grand Rounds, the formation of our Gender Care Program, and the increasing number of women and underrepresented minorities within our faculty, staff, trainee and leadership ranks. 

Research Excellence

We maintained a balanced research portfolio, perennially placing UW Urology in the top 10 for NIH funding. Major UW programs include Lower Urinary Tract Research Network (LURN), Prostate Active Surveillance Study (PASS), Urinary Stone Disease Research Network (USDRN), Comparing Intravesical Therapy & Surgery as Treatment Options (CISTO); and many other individual grants to Urology faculty from NIH, DOD, NASA and PCORI. Patents filed by faculty have led to commercialization of CSATS and novel ultrasound stone technology licensed to SONOMOTION. Additional support comes from 3 Endowed Faculty Fellowships for Innovation, 2 Endowed Professorships, and one Endowed Chair raised through close collaborations between grateful patients and senior faculty members in the Department.

Education

The continuity of our educational philosophy, from its founding under Julian Ansell (who passed away at 96 in 2019) through to the present day, allows us to innovate in the contexts and nature of training. In collaboration with three Residency Program Directors, we substantially expanded the number of residents and fellows in the Department, serving patients with ever more difficult urological problems. This residency expansion allows us to fulfill our goal to support the WWAMI mission through a dedicated Alaska rotation; maintain a valuable collaboration with Madigan Army Medical Center; create the Puget Sound Urology Resident Collaborative; establish the Urology Resident Simulation Training Initiative; and expand philanthropic support for scholarships for medical students, residents, fellows and 3 endowed Lectures. 

Administration and Operations

The significant impact and growth of the Department would not have been possible without the operational excellence of our Administrative Team. It takes a highly organized team to keep so many initiatives in high gear. Fortunately, our entire 11th floor team, and all their collaborations across our sites of activity have put procedures and policies in place to support the Department, Interim Chair Dr. Dan Lin, and all the faculty, trainees, and staff.

In closing, I am extremely grateful to leave the position of Chair, now in Dr. Lin’s highly effective leadership, without leaving UW Medicine. As I spend more time working as President of UW Physicians, and continue to practice reconstructive urology, I will be very proud to first and foremost consider myself a member of the Department of Urology.

Sincerely,

Hunter Wessells, MD, FACS

Professor and Chair Emeritus

Message from the Interim Chair

I will keep my message brief, as Dr. Wessells’s Farewell from the Chair so eloquently summarized our department both past and present. Most importantly, I want to thank Dr. Wessells for his service and leadership since 2008. The department has seen substantial growth, adding clinical sites both near and far, initiating a myriad of new multidisciplinary research endeavors, and expanding the teaching program – all flourishing under his leadership.

I also wanted to assure the UW Urology Community that all ongoing initiatives will continue seamlessly during this state of transition, and I am fully committed to continuing the excellence put forth by previous leadership. Our department members are incredibly deep in experience and expertise; we have stable leadership at all clinical sites and in all programs; our research endeavors are nationally/internationally acclaimed; we have a superior training and education program led by Dr. Hagedorn and Dr. Hehemann; and we will undoubtedly remain one of the best programs in the country.

I am honored and look forward to serving as the Interim Chair. Please do not hesitate to reach out directly to me at any time.

Warm regards,

Daniel W. Lin, MD

Professor and Interim Chair