Faculty Focus
Q&A with Dr. Karl J. Kreder, Department Chair
Last August, Dr. Karl J. Kreder announced that he would step down as chair of the University of Iowa Department of Urology, a position he has held since 2010. As a nationwide search to find his replacement neared completion, Dr. Kreder took some time to reflect on his 15 years at the helm and discussed the progress his team has made during that time.
Dr. Kreder graduated from Georgetown Medical School in 1981 and spent 11 years in the U.S. Army on active duty. He completed residency in urology at Tripler Army Medical Center, Honolulu, and a fellowship in reconstructive urology at Duke University Medical Center. He remained in the Army Reserves until his retirement as a colonel in 2001.
Dr. Kreder joined the Department of Urology in 1992 as assistant professor, and by 1999 he earned promotion to full professor. The following year, he was named vice chair of the department. In 2007 he earned an MBA from the UI Tippie College of Business.
In 2010, he was appointed chair of the UI Department of Urology — just the fifth chair in the department’s history.
His clinical research focuses on several main areas of interest, including benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), overactive bladder/female incontinence and interstitial cystitis. Dr. Kreder has been the principal investigator on eight National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants worth more than $23 million, including the $5 million Multidisciplinary Approach to Pelvic Pain (MAPP) Research Network grant, the largest clinical trial grant in department history. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, 30 book chapters, and three books.
"I believe we have secured our reputation as a world-class department," Dr. Kreder says. "It has been one of the great privileges of my life to be able to lead it and watch it thrive."
From very early on, one of the main themes during your time as chair has been growth and expansion. How has that benefited the department and the Iowans it serves?
Karl Kreder: Despite a critical shortage of doctors in medicine in general today, and particularly in urology, we have successfully recruited a world-class team of urologists because of the excellent facilities and people we have in this department. Back when I took over, we had two APPs and six faculty. Today we have 20 APPs and 16 faculty, and we will have added six more to the faculty by the time I leave. It’s been a dramatic expansion.
We were on the leading edge of the trend to reinforce patient care with APPs. I think we’ve expanded more there than any other department in our hospital, and it has made a significant difference. This huge APP team is an integral part of the practice now. Everybody’s working at the top of their license, doing everything they can so our faculty can focus on the complex procedures and surgeries that only they can do.
We’ve also expanded the residency to four positions a year and started fellowship programs in reconstructive surgery, endourology, and urologic oncology.
And it’s not just about quantity. We’ve hired talented, dedicated people, and many have stayed with us a long time because they like it here. We have some APPs who’ve been here my entire tenure as chair. And the faculty is a good mix of people at different stages of their careers. We’ve got some great people who have been here for a decade, two decades, or more, along with some wonderful early career faculty who I’m confident will continue to grow this department’s legacy of excellence and take it to the next level.
Historically, urology has been a very male-centric field. How has the recruitment of women into the field progressed during your time as chair?
KK: There were no board-certified female urologists in this country until 1962. Two years later, Dr. Dorothy Kelley Brandon came to Iowa for residency. So she was among the first female urology trainees in the nation. In the past 15 years, six women have graduated from our program. Two more will graduate this year, and we have six more women in the residency program. On the faculty side, women now make up a quarter of our team.
What role has outreach played in increasing the department’s ability to offer its advanced services to Iowans?
KK: We had no outreach when I arrived at the university. Everybody had to come to the main campus in Iowa City to get what they needed. Today we see about 40% of our patients at Iowa River Landing in Coralville and at our Northgate location in Iowa City. And we’re covering important areas beyond Iowa City, with clinics in Grinnell, Washington, and Oskaloosa. We’ve got pediatric urology clinics in Johnston, Dubuque, Cedar Falls, and the Quad Cities.
Now that we’ve got the people to do it, we can reach so many more Iowans who need us, closer to where they live. It’s been very impactful. And I think we’ll continue to have opportunities to grow.
How do you measure the success of the department’s research efforts during your time as chair?
KK: I’m very proud to say we’ve had continuous NIH funding throughout my 15 years, and that continues a trend that goes back another 15 years before that. That’s a solid run of 30 years of funding.
But beyond those numbers, what’s so meaningful is the way that what we do here is making patients’ lives better, not just in Iowa but everywhere. Our innovations — for example, in BPH care, in prostate surgery, in bladder cancer treatment — have led to changes in disease management and protocols that are used around the world. It’s very gratifying to see what a difference we’ve made.
For me, personally, a lot of my research has centered around patients with chronic pain, and I think we’ve made great advances in that area. The results of the MAPP studies have translated into much more sophisticated information than we had before to guide how we treat patients, and we treat the vast majority of them successfully. That’s been a very rewarding part of my practice — seeing how the research leads to improving lives in Iowa and around the globe.
As you prepare to step down, how do you feel about the state of the Department of Urology compared to the day you became chair 15 years ago?
KK: When I think about all of the improvements and advances we’ve made together, and all of the hard work our people have done to make them happen, I believe we have secured our reputation as a world-class department. It has been one of the great privileges of my life to be able to lead it and watch it thrive.
Your Gift Makes A Difference
Join us in our mission to improve the lives of patients with urologic conditions across Iowa and around the world.