Urologist and new chairman of Associated Medical Professionals (A.M.P.) wants to expand urologic services beyond CNY region
By Chris Motola
Q: You’re the new chairman and CEO of Associated Medical Professionals (A.M.P.). Can you describe the organization?
A: A.M.P. is a group of physicians that provides urologic care, radiation oncology care, pathology and other health services to Central New York. We have been in existence for over 10 years, continually growing, continuing to meet the demands of the community. We provide the most up-to-date, cutting edge, minimally invasive treatment options for patients with urologic and oncologic conditions.
Q: You’re also chief of urology services at St. Joe’s. Does your group mainly work with them?
A: We’re affiliated with a number of hospital systems in and around Syracuse, from Auburn in the west, to New Hartford in the east, and Oswego in the north.
Q: What kinds of services do you offer?
A: We’re proud to be the premier robotic urology group in Central New York. We have minimally invasive radiotherapy techniques for treatments of prostate cancer. We have physicians who are considered clinicians of excellence when it comes to treatment of BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia) with minimally invasive techniques. We perform minimally invasive surgeries for female urinary incontinence and female urologic conditions. We also have particular expertise in management of kidney stones and bladder cancer. We are also proud of our up-to-date research department, which ensures patients receive the most up-to-date care.
Q: In your own practice, what kinds of conditions do you end up treating?
A: I deal with minimally invasive techniques for treatment of prostate cancer, bladder cancer, prostatic enlargement and kidney stones.
Q: When you’re talking about minimally invasive techniques for those types of issues, what kinds of approaches are we talking about?
A: We use the daVinci robot; we perform minimally invasive procedures for enlarged prostate with procedures such as UroLift. For kidney stones, we’re able to use ultrasonic methods to break up stones. We have the most up-to-date holmium laser here in Syracuse, which is also used to break up kidney stones.
Q: As far urology in Central New York goes, I know for a long time it was a scarce specialty. To what degree has that been addressed, and what role has A.M.P. played in doing so?
A: We’ve grown the company from five or six providers up to 45 providers with more than 300 employees. We see 130,000 patient-visits annually. We performed 5,900 surgical procedures last year, with over 450 of them being robotic procedures using the daVinci system. We’ve treated 560 oncology patients annually with advanced radiotherapy techniques. A couple more numbers: we perform 2,000 prostate biopsies annually. We perform 1,900 kidney stones procedures annually. We have over 60 ongoing clinical trials. We were able to do that through 10 locations throughout the area.
Q: How do you divide your time between administration and clinical work?
A: When I became a physician I went into it with the love of caring for patients and that is something I’ll continue to do. My true love is taking care of patients. I will continue seeing patients in my office and I will be spending a portion of my time doing administrative work to help my team move forward in the future; so a couple days a week I’ll be doing that.
Q: What plans do you have to grow or shape A.M.P.?
A: I want to continue what we’ve accomplished as the premier provider of clinical services for the disease conditions that we treat in the region. We hope to be able to provide our high standard of care to other regions as we go forward, because there’s such a need for our services in the outlying areas. We want to facilitate patients having an excellent clinical experience from the time they call for an appointment until their conditions are treated and their needs are met.
Q: As far as extending your services into outlying areas, how do you prepare your infrastructure for that?
A: We have a great team, from the physicians to the advanced practice providers, administrative and clerical teams. We’re all highly specialized and capable of helping some of the surrounding regions. We continue to have new talent join our practice, and we’re excited to bring some of the care we provide to local patients to patients in the outlying areas.
Lifelines
Name: Angelo DeRosalia, M.D.
Position: Chief of urology Services at St. Joseph’s Hospital and chairman and CEO of Associated Medical Professionals
Hometown: Port Jefferson, New York
Education: a Bachelor of Sciences degree from Cornell University followed by his medical degree from the SUNY Stony Brook. He then completed his surgical and urological training at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center, affiliated with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Affiliations: St. Joseph’s Hospital; Crouse Hospital; University Hospital
Organizations: American Board of Urology; American Urological Association
Family: Three children
Hobbies: Fishing, hiking