PROOF Miscellaneous 50 Urology Journal Vol 5 No 1 Winter 2008 Occupational and Practice Patterns of Iranian Urologists Graduated Within Recent 10 Years Majid Aliasgari, 1 Seyed Jalil Hosseini, 2 Hamidreza Abdi, 3 Hamid Soori 4 Introduction: Our aim was to evaluate the occupational and practice patterns of the Iranian urologists graduated within the past 10 years. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire was sent to 200 urologists who had completed urological residencies within the past 10 years. The questionnaire encompassed queries on age, date of completing residency program, province in which they live and practice, affiliation, access to diagnostic and therapeutic tools, different surgical operations they perform, number of outpatient visits, income, occupational and living problems, and the participants’ viewpoints and suggestions. Results: Of 200 urologists, 98 (49.0%) responded to our survey. The mean time of their graduation was 5.4 ± 3.8 years before this study. Of the respondents, 80.6% had a direct access to all cystoscopy, transureteral lithotripsy, and transurethral resection instruments. Half of the participants were performing surgeries in less than 2 days a week. The mean number of outpatient visits was reported to be 95.6 ± 70.9 per week (range, 5 to 300) and half of the respondents mentioned less than 80 outpatient visits. Seventy-five percent of the urologists carried out less than 20 cystoscopies and less than 30 surgical operations per month. A significant association was found between the affiliation and the number of surgeries and cystoscopies (P = .02 and P = .002, respectively). Conclusion: Our findings showed that while the number of young qualified urologists is increasing, the healthcare system of the country does not have the capacity of using their optimum abilities and cannot support them enough. Urol J. 2008;5:50-6. www.uj.unrc.ir Keywords: urology, health occupations, income, faculties, welfare organization, postgraduate eductaion 1 Department of Urology, Shaheed Modarres Hospital, Shaheed Beheshti Medical University, Tehran, Iran 2 Department of Urology, Shohada- e-Tajrish Hospital, Shaheed Beheshti Medical University, Tehran, Iran 3 Department of Urology, Shaheed Labbafinejad Medical Center, Shaheed Beheshti Medical University, Tehran, Iran 4 Health School, Shaheed Beheshti Medical University, Tehran, Iran Corresponding Author: Hamidreza Abdi, MD No 154, West Mirzaee Zeniali St, North Sohravardi Ave, Tehran, Iran Tel: +98 912 348 6478 Fax: +98 21 8852 6901 E-mail: ham_neg@yahoo.com Received September 2007 Accepted December 2007 INTROUDUTION Decision making for education of skilled workers requires a demanding evaluation to cover its all expenses and cultural and socioeconomic impacts. Every year, the need for specialists in the field of urology is determined by the authorities in the Ministry of Health of Iran and is declared in the application guide lines for the residency exam. The information of 2002 and 2006 residency programs indicate that 30 and 50 positions had been designated for urology, respectively. (1,2) As far as we investigated, there are no documented estimation of the actual needs of the deprived geographical areas for urological health services. In order to design a comprehensive national plan, we require information on the number of urologists practicing in cities with a distinct population, the number of surgeries per month, the number of outpatient visits in private offices, monthly income