Tracy Cannon-Smith, MD

Bio

Here is my official bio from my hospital: Dr. Tracy L. Cannon-Smith completed her undergraduate studies at Brown University in 1991 and graduated from University of Michigan School of Medicine in 1995 with the Ralph M. Gibson, Ph.D. Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement. Dr. Cannon-Smith completed her residency at Loyola University Medical Center in 2001 where she was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. After her residency, Dr. Cannon-Smith did a two-year fellowship at University of Pittsburgh, specializing in female urology and neuro-urology. During her fellowship she wrote and received an NIH grant dealing with innovative treatments for stress urinary incontinence.

She is a board member of the Society of Women in Urology. She is also a member of American Urological Association, Society of Urodynamics and Female Urology, National Medical Association and American Urogynecologic Society.

Dr. Cannon-Smith is well published, and has presented scientific articles at a number of national and international meetings and has won essay contests for her writings. She continues to be involved in clinical and basic science research. Dr Cannon-Smith is a diplomat of the American Board of Urology and a member of the American Urological Association. She is married with four children and resides in Grapevine, Texas.

What is the biggest medical break-through that you have experienced in your field in the past ten years? What break-throughs do you anticipate in over the next ten years?

Urinary incontinence has been a problem that has traditionally been viewed as a natural consequence of aging. Now, with new medications, surgical procedures, and innovative devices there are many options for dealing with this problem. Most people do not discuss incontinence so most people do not realize how common of a problem this is. Although, there are excellent medications for the management of urge incontinence there are few non-surgical treatments of stress urinary incontinence. In the next ten years I expect that adult stem cells will be used as an in office procedure to regenerate the ineffective external urinary sphincter in incontinence patients.

How did you choose your field and how did being a woman influence this choice?

I am often asked this question because most people believe that urologists treat only male patients. What people forget is that women have kidney's and bladders as well. I choose urology for several reasons:

a) Urology is one of the rare specialties of medicine that has a good balance of both in office medical patient care as well as surgical procedures. Urology is a field that generally requires the patients to be followed over a long term. This was appealing to me because I wanted to develop a relationship with my patients.

b) Urology has a wide variety of surgical procedures. There are the simple in office cystoscopies and vasectomies to procedures in the operating room. The operating room has a wide variety of procedures including the traditional open procedures to laparoscopic and endoscopic procedures. I am a "hands on" type of person and therefore I wanted a variety of procedures.

c) Another major reason of why I chose urology was the major need for women in urology. I was the 2nd woman to graduate from my urology residency program in 2001. Women in general prefer to see women physicians. I knew that there was a definite need for women in urology. Serving on the Board of Women in Urology I can tell you that more and more women are entering urology residencies and almost 1/3 of current urology residents are women. In the next 10 years there it will not be so unusual to see a woman urologist.

d) The last reason I chose urology was because it still allows me to have a family and yet be a surgeon. There are few urological emergencies that cannot wait until the morning. This allows for more time at home with my family.

What advice would you give to current Brown students, women in particular, who are interested in going into your profession?

I would encourage women to enter urology. There is going to be a large need as the baby boomers age. People are living longer and therefore are more likely to develop a urologic problem. Again, for women who want a surgical specialty but also want to have time to have a family, urology is ideal. Now that more women have chosen this field we have mentoring programs for women urology residents and medical students interested in urology.

Please feel free to discuss additional topics as you like.

The only other thing that I will mention is that I am 1 of 49 urologists in my group. We are the largest urology group in the country and I am one of the specialists for female urology for this group. Feel free to visit our website at www.uant.com