Alicia Morgans: Hi, I'm so excited to join you from AUA 2022, where I have the opportunity to speak with Dr. Axel Merseburger, who is now going to be leading our initiatives to reach people more effectively through Twitter and some other platforms. So, Dr. Merseburger, it's wonderful to talk to you and I've been so excited that you have joined with UroToday to try to help, I think engage more effectively with listeners, with clinicians, with patients who want to learn more about GU oncology with this platform. Can you tell us a little bit about how you're going to reach people?

Axel Merseburger: Well, thanks for invitation, Alicia, and I think everybody knows by now Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and all those, even TikTok. And I'm a urologist by training and truly not an expert in Twitter, but over the years I found some aspects of it very useful. As of today, AUA 2022, we sit here, we have a lot of people still stuck in their countries because of pandemic reasons, or of private and other reasons, and cannot travel and I think it's important to disseminate the news. And what you are doing great with UroToday with your interviews, with the coverages from Zach Klaassen and I think this is just great. And the idea is to have a broader outreach with using social media. And everybody uses different formats, where I like to read a book or a journal. I like to read European Urology as a print or journal still, or the Journal of Urology.

Some people like a Tweet, like some 20 minutes podcasts. And I'm not a podcast person, but if I would commute every day, an hour to my work, which I'm not, I would probably love podcasts to listen to how people discuss newest developments in oncology. And so I think you need to get everybody's need within those possibilities we have nowadays, having, for example, Twitter or Instagram for the people that are more in need for visualization or videos. So I think this is something new and Twitter definitely has force.

Everybody can do journalists here. Surely you need to somehow sort that the content makes sense, but for that, I have you producing the contents here and with its coverages. So I think it's a great collaboration and thank you for trust here.

Alicia Morgans: Of course. So I think to your point, there are so many different ways that we learn. As adult learners sometimes we learn by hearing. Sometimes we learn by reading. Sometimes we learn by watching and listening. There are so many ways and repetition of the same themes and concepts can also be really, really effective.

We also, of course, are very focused on trying to ensure that patients have access to information. And so having access in whatever platform, in whatever form we can provide is so important. And to your other point, having that access through Twitter and having that come through a feed or Instagram, maybe some key figures or even TikTok, though I'm not going to dance on UroToday would be different ways to really reach listeners. And we appreciate your interest in this. Now I know you're making a special initiative around meetings that are happening and you're going to be doing this over time. Of course, we welcome feedback from the UroToday community.

Axel Merseburger: Definitely.

Alicia Morgans: But what is your strategy? How are you going to get that content to us in a way that is most useful?

Axel Merseburger: Well, just speaking to my team, to my residents and colleagues in Germany. They always ask me, so what's your plan for the conference? What are you looking at? And I think this could be different ways. You could look at stones at AUA. You could have looked at bladder cancer or prostate cancer, but somehow with those hundred sessions simultaneously running at a conference, you need to have a strategy. You need to have some kind of plan. So I think this is something we could have teasers before. So what's hot. What's new. What is your coverage as you are looking at? And definitely what you are looking at is very exciting news. Plenary late-breaking sessions and then have a summary of what's happening on site. What are the reactions in the community? What are the immediate comments from peers? And those are the peers that are answering and maybe even four weeks later having a digestive tweet.

So what have I learned? And what's still in my head? Four weeks ago when I went to AUA, APCCC meeting and it's never a hundred aspects. It's three to five take-home messages. But when you have them in your back taken back and maybe in your Twitter account to memorize for your next talk or your next even consultation of a patient, for example, APCCC my take-home message. ADT is not enough in metastatic hormone, sensitive prostate cancer. We've covered this up and down, but I think this is something you take home with you and you don't forget. So I think this is something where social media like Twitter or other channels really support this channels you are providing here.

Alicia Morgans: Wonderful. Well, I really look forward to you helping us to organize this information in a way that is most useful and reaching us wherever we are. Twitter, Facebook, even TikTok, wherever you can reach us. It's helpful because we all digest information differently and having that information and that content available to us in the most effective way is really appreciated by the audience. And so I look forward to your help and your contributions to this effort. Thank you.

Axel Merseburger: Thank you, Alicia. And one last final comment. I think this is what you already mentioned. Like the interaction is important. And so please suggest what you want to hear, what you want to have covered. And this is a way to, for example, suggest topics which you at the next conference are taking up then with your great interview partners. Thanks for having me here.

Alicia Morgans: That would be wonderful. Reach out to us at UroToday. And we are excited to hear what you want to hear so that we can make those plans for our next meeting. Thank you.

Axel Merseburger: Thanks.