David M. Albala, MD

Crouse Hospital

Syracuse, New York

David M. Albala, MD, graduated with a geology degree from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. He completed his medical school training at Michigan State University and went on to complete his surgical residency at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Following this, Dr. Albala was an endourology fellow at Washington University Medical Center under the direction of Ralph V. Clayman. He practiced at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago and rose from the ranks of Instructor toProfessor in Urology and Radiology in eight years. Ten years later, he became a tenured Professor at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina. At Duke, he was Co-Director of the Endourology Fellowship and Director for the Center of Minimally Invasive and Robotic Urological Surgery. He has over 247 publications in peer-reviewed journals and has authored three textbooks in endourology and seven in general urology. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Robotic Surgery. Dr. Albala serves on the editorial board for Medical Reviews in Urology, Current Opinions in Urology, and Urology Index and Reviews. He serves as a reviewer for eight surgical journals. He is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Urology at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. In addition, he was ranked among the top 2% of urologists in the world by a Stanford University study done in May 2021. At the present time, Dr. Albala is Chief of Urology at Crouse Hospital and a member of Associated Medical Professionals in Syracuse, New York. He is considered a national and international authority in laparoscopic and robotic urological surgery and has been an active teacher in this area for over 20 years. His research and clinical interests have focused on robotic urological surgery. His other clinical interests include minimally invasive treatment of benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH), biomarkers in prostate cancer, and the use of fibrin sealants in surgery. He has been a Visiting Professor at numerous institutions across the United States as well internationally in multiple countries including India, China, Iceland, Germany, France, Japan, Brazil, Australia, and Singapore. In addition, he has done operative demonstrations in over 32 countries and 23 states. He has trained 19 fellows in endourology and advanced robotic surgery. In addition, Dr. Albala is a past White House Fellow who acted as a special assistant to Federico Pena, Secretary of Transportation, on classified and unclassified public health related issues.

Disclosures:

Speaker: Genomic Health
Ad Board: Cellanyx

Talks by David M. Albala, MD

2023 Legislative and Regulatory Issues Update

Posted by David M. Albala, MD | Aug 2023

In this panel discussion, David M. Albala, MD, Ronald P. Kaufman Jr., MD, and Mara R. Holton, MD, address the pressing issue of Medicare payment cuts in urology. The speakers emphasize the importance of unified advocacy, both at the legislative level and within the urology community.

The panelists discuss the failed MIPS/MACRA program and the need for site-neutral payment reform, underscoring the urgent need for change. Additionally, they discuss the significance of PBM reform and the role it plays in curbing inflationary drug costs. They conclude the presentation with a call to action for urologists, encouraging them to engage in advocacy efforts, work together as a united front, and demand meaningful payment reform to protect the profession.

Robotic Prostatectomy: How Far Have We Come All These Years?

Posted by David M. Albala, MD | Jul 2022

In this 11-minute video, David M. Albala, MD, Chief of Urology at Crouse Hospital in Syracuse, New York, discusses the increasing use of robotic prostatectomy and its effectiveness today. He compares robotic prostatectomy surgery to open surgery regarding perioperative outcomes, positive surgical margins, oncological outcomes, and functional outcomes.

Integrating Theranostics Into a Group Practice

Posted by David M. Albala, MD | Oct 2021

David M. Albala, MD, Chief of Urology at Crouse Hospital in Syracuse, New York, discusses theranostics and the role it will play in the future of prostate cancer treatment. He explains that theranostics is a management strategy involving the integration of therapeutics and diagnostics that specifically uses targeting molecules labeled with either diagnostic radionuclides or with therapeutic radionuclides for diagnosis of and therapy for a particular malignancy. Dr. Albala states that theranostics works to overcome trial and error methods of finding “one-size-fits-all” solutions in medicine in order to produce personalized medicine. Dr. Albala also discusses PSA and PSMA, explaining that PSMA is used with different ligands such as PSMA-11 and PSMA-617 to treat specific individuals. He reviews how theranostics are used with radionuclide agents to determine localization, examine molecular biodistribution, aid in determining optimal therapeutic dosage, and monitor the patient’s response to treatment. Dr. Albala then reviews data from a trial of Lutetium-177 and PSMA-617 for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer that showed Lutetium-based treatment outdoing standard-of-care in median overall survival by 4 months and skeletal event occurrence by 3%. He concludes with a summary of the implications of theranostics for patient care, stating that theranostics leads to more effective disease management and eliminates unnecessary treatments, enhances diagnosis and disease staging, and reduces costs associated with suboptimal diagnostics and treatments.

The Live Primary Cell Phenotypic Test (LPCP) for Prostate Cancer

Posted by David M. Albala, MD | Feb 2020

David M. Albala, MD, Chief of Urology at Crouse Hospital in Syracuse, New York, discusses the experimental live primary cell phenotypic test (LPCP) for prostate cancer. He details how live, unfixed cancer cells are taken from tissue, plated out on an extracellular matrix, and grown in a single cell monolayer. The LPCP looks at 14 different biomarkers from both normal and malignant cells, and machine learning algorithms generate scores that, according to preliminary research, can accurately predict general, local, and metastatic adverse pathology potential.

Live-Primary Cell Phenotypic Biomarkers and Prostate Cancer Prognosis

Posted by David M. Albala, MD | Jul 2019

David M. Albala, MD, emphasizes the need for improved prostate cancer diagnostics to allow for better risk-stratification and guidance of personalized treatment. He then reviews findings from an analytical validation study of live-primary cell phenotypic biomarker-based diagnostic assay with the potential to address this need