Dr. Winters Receives 2020 Distinguished Contributions Award from the American Urological Association
Leslie Capo, Director of Information Services
J. Christian Winters, MD, professor and chair of urology, is one of three physicians in the country chosen by the American Urological Association (AUA) to receive the 2020 Distinguished Contributions Award. The AUA selected Dr. Winters for “outstanding leadership and contributions to the field of incontinence and voiding dysfunction.” Dr. Winters is also vice chancellor for clinical affairs, overseeing all clinical activity, and chief executive officer of the LSU Healthcare Network, the multispecialty group practice of LSU Health New Orleans faculty.
According to the association, “This award is presented annually to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the science and the practice of urology in a subspecialty area, for military career service or for humanitarian efforts.”
Dr. Winters earned his medical degree at LSU Health Sciences Center and completed his urology residency in the combined LSU Health/Ochsner program, as well as a fellowship in female urology and voiding dysfunction at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in 1995. After three years in private practice, he returned to New Orleans holding staff positions at LSU Health and Ochsner Clinic. He was appointed director of the Ochsner/LSU Urology Residency Program in 2005, and was recognized by the AUA as Teacher of the Year in 2009 for these efforts.
He is board certified in urology and was appointed as a trustee to the American Board of Urology (ABU) in 2011, serving as ABU President in 2016. Winters has served as president of the Society of Urodynamics and Female Pelvic Medicine and Urogenital Reconstruction (SUFU), Louisiana State Urologic Society President, and as a Councilor of the Society of University Urologists. He was director of the SUFU Fellowship Committee, and organized the combined American Board of Urology/American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG) Match process for Female Pelvic Medicine Fellowships. He also served as a member of the joint ABU/AUA Examination Committee, the ABU/ABOG Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery Examination Committee, as well as the joint board of the AUA and ABOG. Winters' AUA service has included serving as American Urologic Association Stress Urinary Incontinence Guidelines Panel member, the AUA-ABOG Stress Urinary Incontinence Outcomes Measures Panel and chair of the AUA Urodynamics Guidelines. He also served on the AUA Health Policy Council, Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Committee, Practice Management Committee and the AUA Nominating Committee. Through these roles, he has frequently consulted in the area of voiding dysfunction and female urology. He continues to serve as an AUA Update Editorial Board Member and as an Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Residency Review Committee member.
He is currently a member of SUFU, the American Urologic Association, the International Continence Society, the American Urogynecologic Society, the American College of Surgeons, the International Urogynecologic Association and the Louisiana State Urologic Society. He was inducted into the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons in 2012 and the Clinical Society of Genitourinary Surgeons in 2017.
Winters served as associate editor of Neurourology and Urodynamics and is on the editorial board of the Journal of the Louisiana State Medical Society. He has published nearly 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts and text chapters. His bibliography includes publications on graft biomechanics and histology and he is recognized as a leader in graft technology on vaginal surgery. This work has facilitated his advisory roles with the AUA in these areas, and he has represented the AUA before the Food and Drug Administration advisory panel.
Winters has been recognized by Best Doctors since 2003. He was named “Continence Care Champion” by the National Association for Continence, and was awarded the SUFU Distinguished Service Award in 2019. He was presented with the Cristina Manthos Award for mentorship of women in urology by the Society of Women in Urology in 2015, and the Ochsner Health System Alumni Society has recently named him the 2020 Alumnus of the Year.
The AUA will present the award to Winters at its annual meeting next May in Washington, DC.