“Campbell-Walsh Urology has been the gold standard of urology textbooks. The commitment of all the editors is that we keep it the gold standard in urology and that each edition gets better than the one before it.” – Dr. Alan Wein
I come from a small town in West Virginia where physicians were held in high regard, so it was easy to pick a few role models and say, “I like what they do.” As my career advanced, I wanted to choose a field in which I thought I could contribute and be comfortable. I realized I had more of a surgical personality, rather than a medical personality. I also was interested in physiology and pharmacology. So, I wanted a surgical field where I could pursue physiology and pharmacology as a research interest. I went through the various surgical specialties and eliminated them one by one. Urology seemed to be, at the time, a relatively circumscribed field where you couldn’t learn everything, but you could know at least something about everything. With urology I could still pursue the kind of physiology and pharmacology I liked because the urinary tract is so fascinating. The people I met in urology seemed to be happy with what they did. They seemed to get along well and were satisfied with their careers. So, I decided that urology would be my profession, and I have been quite happy with that decision ever since.
Every edition of Campbell-Walsh Urology changes a fair amount. With each edition, we go through the chapters and decide what we need in terms of new content and new authors. There’s been a tremendous increase in the number of videos we use, which will increase even more, as the years go on. We try to make each edition in a format that the people who use the information are comfortable with. Information technology plays a great role in deciding how the next edition is going to look, in what format it will be available, and how the various components— the text, the videos, the figures—will fit together.
The other editors and I are all aware that Campbell-Walsh Urology has been the gold standard of urology textbooks, which is what Pat Walsh told me when I first came onto the editorial board. I think all of us are very aware of that tradition. It’s not a tradition that we’re going to let lie fallow in any way. I think the commitment of all the editors is that we keep it the gold standard in urology and that each edition gets better than the one before it.
Biography
Alan J. Wein, MD, FACS, PhD(hon.) is Professor and Chief of the Division of Urology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and Chief of Urology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the Residency Program in Urology at the University of Pennsylvania at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Princeton University and received his MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He completed training in Surgery and Urology at the University of Pennsylvania including a fellowship at the Harrison Department of Surgical Research. Dr. Wein has been certified and recertified (voluntary) by the American Board of Urology. He was awarded an honorary Ph.D. from the University of Patras, Greece in September 2005. He was conferred the status of Honorary Professor of the Federal State Institute of Urology in May 2010.
Dr. Wein has received numerous awards from various societies for his contributions to Urology, holds or has held editorial board or associate editorial positions on 14 respected journals, is the editor-in-chief of the gold standard textbook on Urology, Campbell-Walsh Urology, has over 900 publications and has written, edited and co-edited over 30 books on urology. His fields of interest are the evaluation and management of urologic cancer, the physiology and pharmacology of the lower urinary tract, the evaluation and management of voiding function and dysfunction including problems related to prostate enlargement, urinary incontinence and neurologic disease.
Related Authors: Louis R. Kavoussi, MD; Alan W. Partin, MD, PhD; Craig A. Peters, MD, FACS, FAAP
