As the Rocky Mountain Urology Center (RMUC) enters 2024, its staff is looking back on a remarkable previous year in which it doubled its physician staff and added a new cutting-edge diagnostic procedure for conducting prostate biopsies. The center, based at Valley View Hospital (VVH) in Glenwood Springs, has branch offices in Aspen, Eagle and Rifle.
New staff
“We really felt like we hit the jackpot with our recruiting class in 2023,” Dr. Aashish Kabra stated in a conversation with The Sopris Sun. “We’re entering our golden era,” at RMUC, he continued, noting that the center had assembled a “dream team” staff with the new additions.
Early last year, Dr. Scott Castle joined RMUC, coming to the Roaring Fork Valley from Charleston, South Carolina, where he had a urology practice and was an assistant professor of surgery at the South Carolina College of Medicine. In addition to his long experience in general urology, Dr. Castle brought his considerable expertise with the da Vinci surgical robotic system, which allows surgeons to perform minimally invasive procedures using their hand movements to control tiny instruments in real time.
In an earlier prepared statement from VVH, Dr. Castle said, “I have a history of cancer in my family, which informs the way I do my job today.” He continued, “I create bonds with my patients so I can give them the same empathy and personalized treatment I wanted for my own family members.”
Also new to RMUC in 2023 is Dr. Stephen Williams, who joined the center in early September. He has an extensive background in urologic oncology, including, most recently, a decade as director of that specialty at the Southern California Permanente Medical Group in San Diego.
Asked by The Sopris Sun why he chose this area after more than two decades in California, he said that both he and his wife were from small towns, and after their kids had left home, “We wanted to get back to our roots in a small community.” He continued, “Valley View was the first place I interviewed, and after visiting other places for six months, this was the place I kept coming back to.”
Dr. Williams said that RMUC has “always been a pretty strong department” — which, in addition to Dr. Kabra, includes longtime staff members Dr. Jamie Lowe and advanced practice nurse Ashley Gilley, as well as (formerly) Dr. Brian Murphy, now VVH’s chief executive officer. In addition to addressing all types of urologic disorders, Dr. Williams is looking forward to building RMUC into a center for cancer treatment not only for the region but “throughout the state” and beyond. He is also pleased by the “multidisciplinary approach with the Calaway-Young Cancer Center” at VVH.
New diagnostic procedure
In his conversation with The Sopris Sun, Dr. Kabra was excited to discuss the introduction last fall of transperineal prostate biopsy (TPB) procedures. This method uses needles, guided by magnetic resonance imagery and ultrasound equipment, that are inserted through the perineum (tissue between the scrotum and rectum) to access the prostate tissue being biopsied. The more traditional transrectal procedure involves needle access to the prostate via the rectum, which includes the chance of infection from fecal matter.
“The [TPB] procedure dramatically reduces the risk of infection,” Dr. Kabra said, adding, “It provides the best biopsy results and the best patient experience.” This is partly because the newer procedure can access, more accurately, the entire prostate — not always possible with the transrectal method. In addition, TPB typically requires less anesthesia than with transrectal procedures, he noted.
Implementing TPB at RMUC was a multiyear project, the doctor told The Sopris Sun. He had begun researching the procedure shortly after coming to VVH in 2019. First, they had to acquire an MRI/ultrasound fusion biopsy machine (which enables precise biopsy of suspected lesions). “Three years ago, a philanthropic donation from a former patient allowed us to buy the machine,” he explained.
Next, as the RMUC team was preparing to launch the TBP procedure last year, Valley View Surgery Center at Basalt opened in March. That facility offered the ideal setting for patients.
With those two components in place, it was then a matter of acquiring the software for the equipment and being trained in the procedure. “Bringing Drs. Castle and Williams onboard motivated us to use the new system,” Dr. Kabra added, noting, “We are trying to do [TPB procedures] 100% of the time now.”
More information on RMUC can be found at https://www.vvh.org/urology/ or by calling
970-928-0808.