Dear TUA colleagues:

I fully appreciate your support in selecting me as the 19th President of the Taiwan Urological Association (TUA). It is a great honor and also a great responsibility. The mission of TUA includes promoting the health and welfare of the Taiwanese people, constructing standard urological treatment guidelines, educating young doctors to become qualified urologists, and protecting the rights of all TUA members. In order to accomplish these tasks, we must move forward quickly to achieve a higher level of care and a better tomorrow.

During this term, I would like to invite young, enthusiastic urological fellows to devote themselves to the public affairs of TUA. Together with the TUA executive committee members, we hope this teamwork I can greatly benefit the TUA.

In addition to the regular committees of TUA, several functional committees concerned with member service and education have been added to 1)stablisha new educational platform: The TUA e-school, 2) protect rational reimbursement from health insurance, 3) formulate 30 concise clinical guidelines for common urological practice, 4) organize a urological nursing and technician committee to provide education and communication between urologists and their practice partners, 5) provide core lectures for continuous medical education at the monthly urological meeting in every district, 6) improve the quality of Urological Science, the official journal of theTUA, to prepare for citation by Medline and the Science Citation Index,and 7) increase the academic level of the TUA annual meeting to that of international standards.

Since September 2014, we have moved forward toward these goals. With the passion of the TUA executive members and young partners, I am sure you will find a brand new TUA in the coming year.

Hann-Chorng Kuo, M.D.
President, Taiwan Urological Association
Department of Urology, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital and Tzu Chi University