Health and Fitness Expo

The GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS), in partnership with the GW Hospital and the GW Medical Faculty Associates, participated in the 2014 NBC4 Health and Fitness Expo on Jan. 11 and 12 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. A team of urologists led by Compton Benjamin, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of urology at SMHS and clinical director of urologic oncology at GW Hospital, provided free prostate cancer screening exams.

Throughout the weekend, more than 300 men were screened for the disease, which claims more than 25,000 lives each year according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We have one of the highest rates of prostate cancer incidence and prostate cancer death in the country,” said Benjamin. “At GW, we continue to emphasize that screening of African Americans and men with a family history of prostate cancer is essential.”

Screening events like this are important because “they empower patients with information so they can make an informed decision about their health,” said Christopher Bayne, M.D., a third-year urology resident at SMHS. Recently, there has been a lot of controversy in the press about prostate cancer screening and treatment, explains Bayne. Some of the controversy is founded and some is misguided. “We were available all weekend for men who wanted to talk about prostate cancer and how they may be at risk,” he added.

Bayne, along with urology residents Kaitlan Cobb, M.D., PGY1; Brenton Winship, M.D., PGY2; Alice Semerjian, M.D., PGY4; Mona Yezdani, M.D., PGY5; Paulina Gorney-Brown, M.D., PGY5; Todd Sterling, M.D., PGY6; and Landon Nguyen, M.D., PGY6, volunteered their services.