Dr. Raju Thomas named President of American Urological Association

Raju Thomas, MD, has been named President of the American Urological Association (AUA) for 2021-2022. A past president of the AUA's Southeastern Section, Dr. Thomas previously served on the AUA’s Urology Care Foundation Board of Directors and received the AUA Distinguished Service Award in 2016. Dr. Thomas is the chair of the Department of Urology and directs the department's residency program.

“I’m humbled and honored to be named president of this distinguished group,” Dr. Thomas said. “The American Urological Association is dedicated to education, research and advocacy and I look forward to this opportunity to lead the organization.”

Dr. Thomas obtained his medical degree from the University of Bombay, India in 1975 and graduated in 1982 from the Urology residency program at Tulane. He completed a fellowship program at the Tulane National Primate Research Center co-sponsored by the American Urological Association and the National Kidney Foundation.

Dr. Thomas has dedicated his career to finding minimally invasive alternatives to urologic surgery. He pioneered several innovative endoscopic and surgical procedures and developed the principles for their use. He also has significant experience in such innovative procedures as ureteroscopic retrograde endopyelotomy and urological laparoscopy, and he has promoted radical perineal prostatectomy in conjunction with laparoscopy as a minimally morbid alternative for management of prostate cancer.

Dr. Thomas holds the distinction of introducing urologic laparoscopy in 1991, and was the first surgeon to perform DaVinci robotic surgery in the entire Gulf South in 2002. He also helped rebuild the Department of Urology at Tulane University following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  Dr. Thomas is the recipient of the 2021 Spirit of Charity Award, presented annually to a physician whose career began or was nurtured in the healing and teaching wards of our beloved Charity Hospital.

"Dr. Thomas has personally led his outstanding departments in all aspects: clinical care, training and research," said Dr. Lee Hamm, Sr. Vice President and Dean of Tulane University School of Medicine. “We’re tremendously proud the AUA has chosen to recognize his tremendous contributions to the field with this leadership role.”

The American Urological Association brings together more than 23,000 physicians and other healthcare workers from around the world, and Dr. Thomas has been a member of the AUA since 1986.