At the beginning of the 2000s, during our residency training, the two primary reference books in Turkish Urology were “Temel Üroloji” and “Smith & Tanagho’s General Urology.” When medical students requested study resources, our professors and we, as assistants, would distribute these books to them and collect them back at the end of the urology rotation. Despite containing excellent information, it was difficult for medical students to complete these books within the three-week clerkship period, and as you can imagine, the content often appeared too detailed for their level.

After we began working as faculty members at the Faculty of Medicine at Gaziantep University, we observed—similar to many other medical schools—that due to time constraints, students primarily relied on notes from previous students as their main study source. We noticed that spelling errors or interpretational inaccuracies in these notes were repeatedly passed down to subsequent groups, leading to the perpetuation of mistakes. Therefore, together with all our faculty members, we planned to compile the core information we present during lectures into a textbook.

Our book, titled “Introduction to Urology and Fundamental Concepts,” is intended for medical students and physicians who have just started their residency training in urology. The chapters were written by faculty members working in our clinic and urology specialists who completed their residency in our department. In addition, some chapters were contributed to by current urology residents at our clinic under the supervision of faculty members. We believe that this resource will be beneficial not only to students at Gaziantep University Faculty of Medicine but also to medical students at other institutions.

We hope that this resource will be useful for students completing their urology clerkship as well as for colleagues who have recently begun their residency training in medicine.

Prof. Dr. Ömer Bayrak
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Haluk Şen