The Confederacion Americana de Urologia (CAU), an organization of 8,000 urologists from Central and South America, Mexico and Spain, has announced that it is establishing the Shlomo Raz Medal and Prize, its highest accolade. The new prize will honor Dr. Shlomo Raz, professor of urology and longtime chief of UCLA Urology's Division of Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery, for his longstanding commitment to building educational bridges between North American and Latin American urology.
It will be awarded annually to a deserving urologist who works to further the mission of the organization. Dr. Raz's likeness will appear in bas-relief on the bronze medallion. He will be the honorary first recipient of the eponymous award.
Dr. Raz is considered the international dean of the academic and clinical discipline of female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery and has spent the past several decades creating and running seminars, meetings and colloquia for urologists in Latin America. He has traveled widely throughout South and Central America to provide hands-on instruction in surgical techniques across the Spanish-speaking world.
Some 20 years ago, Dr. Raz created and hosted a small CAU clinical symposium for Spanish-speaking urologists attending the American Urological Association annual meeting. Today, Dr. Raz's conference showcases keynote lecturers from across the landscape of academic urology in state-of-the-art updates on topics of interest to practicing urologists. What started as a homespun meeting now draws 2,000 attendees.
