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Researchers have evaluated the rate of physician adherence to the American Urological Association guidelines on the management of benign prostatic hyperplasia/lower urinary tract symptoms (BPH/LUTS). The evaluation could establish a benchmark for future research. 

Investigators used electronic medical record-based data extraction techniques to assess how well physicians adhered to American Urological Association's BPH/LUTS guidelines over a five-year period.

"Our aim was to establish an adherence benchmark to enlighten further study of barriers to provider adherence and of patient outcomes related to guideline adherence," explained lead investigator Gregory P. Auffenberg, MD, from the Department of Urology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, in the press release.

The evaluation was a retrospective analysis of patient records from the first-time evaluation of nearly 3,500 men 45 years old or older.

"Our investigation includes one of the most robust analyses of physician adherence to AUA guidelines on the management of BPH/LUTS in the published literature, and represents the first published analysis to our knowledge of the rate of performance of measures that are challenging to extract from administrative data (i.e., subjective symptom description, I-PSS, sexual function evaluation, performance of a physical examination and specific examination maneuvers)," said Dr. Auffenberg. 

"We established a benchmark rate of urologist adherence to the guideline directives. Further investigation will be important to verify this benchmark in different physician populations."

The findings appear in The Journal of Urology.