SUFU 2021: Update on the SUFU OAB Clinical Pathway

(UroToday.com) In 2015, The Society of Urodynamics and Female Urology (SUFU) established a SUFU branded Overactive Bladder (OAB) Clinical Care Project (CCP) with the goal to establish a SUFU branded OAB CCP based on evidence from the American Urology Association (AUA)/SUFU OAB clinical practice guidelines and expert consensus. The goal was to construct a SUFU OAB CCP that would offer providers with enhanced ability to offer additional lines of therapy and provide educational descriptions of the OAB therapies being offered.

The committee included multidisciplinary OAB experts including pelvic floor and behavioral modification specialists (e.g. Kathy Burgio, Ph.D., Diane Newman, DNP). Components of the OAB CCP included a flow diagram illustrating the clinical management pathway, a patient road map to educate patients. It developed a tangible outline of times and expectations for each therapeutic option and insight or triggers if current therapy is not satisfactory and time to consider alternative options.

In addition, an OAB CCP website has been developed as part of the SUFU website. It includes first-line therapy modules including patient education material on conservative behavioral therapies, particularly helpful for providers who do not have this resource. Also, it includes a patient medication tool which will hopefully improve adherence and provide assistance in handling side effects. A smartphone app that digitalizes the roadmap has been developed. This APP is interactive. Part of the dissemination campaign includes partnering with UroToday to create an OAB Center of Excellence.
Future plans include the development of a patient registry.

Presented by: Stephen Kraus, MD MBA FACS, Professor and Vice Chairman, Department of Urology Chief Division of Female Urology, Neuro-urology & Voiding Dysfunction, UT Health San Antonio

Written by: Diane K. Newman, DNP, CRNP, FAAN, BCB-PMD, Nurse Practioner and Co-Director, Penn Center for Continence and Pelvic Health Adjunct Professor of Urology in Surgery during the 2021 Society of Urodynamics, Female Pelvic Medicine & Urogenital Reconstruction (SUFU) Winter Meeting.