Medical students present research at prominent urology conference
Four students from the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine (VTCSOM) recently presented their urology research and scholarly work at the Mid-Atlantic Section annual meeting of the American Urological Association. Luke Arney, Mia Edelson, Randall Bissette, and Ethan Nethery, all members of the Class of 2025, presented individual abstracts at the event.
“Urology has not had a substantial presence among the VTCSOM faculty until recently,” said Christopher Bayne, VTCSOM assistant professor and Carilion Clinic pediatric urologist. “In the past, medical students have had to look elsewhere for urology mentors, and scholarly activity opportunities have been scarce for students who are intending a career in urology.”
VTCSOM and Carilion are working to build a urology residency training program that would accommodate more students who wish to pursue the specialty. Since its inception, the school has graduated four students who have gone into urology. In the next 18 months, four more are expected to opt for a urology specialization. Three of them will go through the residency match process in March 2025; the fourth will go through the process in March 2026.
“It’s very exciting,” said Michael Nussbaum, professor and chair of the Department of Surgery at VTCSOM and senior vice president at Carilion. “We have never had more than one student match in urology in a graduating class. As we recruit additional academic urologists to join Drs. Chris Bayne, Dan Rukstalis, and Yu Zhang, we are well on our way to building a core group of urology faculty at VTCSOM.”
