FR02-10 AUA PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES

Abstract

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: The AUA Presidential address has been an important feature of every AUA meeting since 1904. We wished to know how the addresses have changed over the century, their themes and topics, and how well the addresses reflected an underlying sentiment or outlook of contemporary urology. METHODS: We converted all written (published or unpublished) or video AUA Presidential addresses into a searchable database of text files. We obtained biographical data from the AUA Didusch Museum and digitalized newspaper archives. Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kinkaid Grade Level statistics were generated using Microsoft Word. Sentiment analysis was conducted using Voyant Tools, a common open source natural language processing (NLP) platform to assess for positive and negative word association sets. Lastly, we used analog (i.e. reading) methods to assess for blinded sentiment analysis using an internally validated crowd-sourced binary grading metric. Regression analysis was used to assess for statistically significant trends. RESULTS: 95 addresses from 1904-2018 were entered into a searchable database representing 93 AUA Presidents 60.0 +/- 9.3 years of age. Only 59 addresses (62%) were published in the Journal of Urology from 1921-1999. On average, each address was 2990 +/- 1350 words (range 687 (William Garlick, MD, 1979) to 7752 (Ramon Guiteras, 1904). There were significant decreases in word count and use of the passive voice over the century (p< .001). Readability metrics suggested that addresses became ‘less difficult’ over time. Negative sentiment was associated with speeches of a financial or legislative theme and positive sentiment with speeches regarding the art and practice of urology (p<.04). There was no association of negative sentiment with speeches during the Great Depression or war time. CONCLUSIONS: AUA Presidential Addresses have become shorter and more readable while negative sentiment scores increased, especially in speeches of a financial or legislative theme. The database continues to be supplemented as more unpublished addresses are located. The AUA President Digital Humanities Project may provide scholars with a useful platform for digital analysis and research.Source of Funding: None