There are many different resources and current studies ongoing currently at University of Utah. Some of these opportunities include.
- Reconstructive urology
- Full availability of the Trauma and Urologic Reconstruction Network of Surgeons This data source pools data from 12 or more tertiary reconstructive centers in North America and can be used to investigate many aspects of clinical outcomes in urethral stricture and incontinence treatment.
- Trauma
- Utah is the primary investigator for two prospective studies through the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma which evaluate current management of bladder and renal trauma, as well as the acute management of pelvic fracture urethral injury.
- SCI and Neurogenic bladder
- PCORI grant – A grant entitled “Bladder Management in Patients with Spinal Cord Injury” started in August 2015. This is a multi-institutional study, which Utah serves as the primary investigative site. The grant’s goal is to assess current trends in SCI bladder management and patient reported outcomes with different bladder managements. A large database has been assembled with many areas of potential investigation.
- DoD grant – A grant entitled “The Effectiveness of Early Sacral Nerve Stimulation in Preserving Bladder Health and Quality of Life After Acute Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury” began September 2016 and will randomize patients after acute spinal cord injury to SNM placement versus usual care. There are multiple opportunities to use data from this project to describe bladder dynamics after SCI.
- The Neurogenic Bladder Research Group is a new group of dedicated centers, focused upon meaningful studies in neurogenic bladder. A database is under current development and the group is open to ideas for meaningful studies in the years to come.
- Utah Population Database
- The UPDB houses full medical records and pedigree data on 85% of all Utahns. This database is unique and can be used to conduct powerful population based studies. Current areas of investigation in urology are prostate cancer inheritance and treatment, management of urethral strictures, outcomes in pediatric urologic disease, and incidence an impact of radiation injury. The possibilities for meaningful health services research are virtually endless.
- Pediatric
- Research is primarily focused on Health Services Research, which is the study of access, delivery, outcomes, cost, quality, and disparities in health care. We do this from several different areas: Utilize the UPDB, a large state-wide database, to assess the long-term (20 year) outcomes of major pediatric urology birth defects and their reconstructions. Access the Intermountain Healthcare database to study the 5-year outcomes of pediatric hydronephrosis. Several smaller more nuanced projects looking at the hypospadias repairs, ureteral reimplantations, pyeloplasties, and other pediatric urologic procedures and conditions.
