Find the right specialist to help treat your chronic or recurrent urinary tract infection.
Please note some physicians listed may not be be able to treat children under the age of 16. Contact their admin team for the specific age from which individual patients can be accepted.
Ensure you are aware of all the treatment costs before making an appointment if self-funding. These can be provided by the relevant clinic’s admin team. Discuss with your health insurer any policy exclusions such as email correspondence, telephone/virtual consultations or repeat prescription charges. You may have to cover the cost of these yourself.
International patients are advised to find a local clinician or GP who would work with a US specialist. Prescriptions issued in the US are not accepted outside of the US for legal reasons and would need to be converted into a home country script. Medications can be sent from the US but monthly costs are high in comparison to working with your local home country practitioner.
Dr Stewart Bundrick/Dr Sarah Tucci
Diagnostic method Standard urine analysis and DNA/NGS sequencing
Treatment method Antibiotics
Clinic location Louisiana
Dr Bundrick graduated from Louisiana Tech University and medical school at Louisiana State University School of Medicine in Shreveport, where he also completed his urology residency. He went on to Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Washington to complete a graduate fellowship in urologic oncology. Dr. Bundrick is widely published and has led many clinical trials to advance the cause of urologic research.
Sarah Tucci, PA-C holds an undergraduate degree from Louisiana Tech University and a master’s degree in immunology from California State University. She is a board-certified physician assistant. She has more than a decade of urology experience. Her specialty is female urology and the treatment of advanced prostate cancer.
Both can be seen in person by US or Canadian residents. After the first in person consult, additional consults can either be done face to face or via telephone/video conference. International patients can be seen either in person or via virtual telemedicine video consults.
Dr Bundrick can also provide clinical diagnostics and treatment for children and young adults.
Ark-La-Tex Urology
Bossier City
2449 Hospital Dr, Suite 280
Bossier City, LA 71111
Phone + (318) 841-4004
Fax + (318) 841-4008
Ark La Tex Urology
Dr Michael Hsieh (paediatric patients only)
Diagnostic method Standard urine analysis and DNA/NGS sequencing
Treatment method Antibiotics
Clinic location Washington D.C.
Michael Hsieh, M.D., Ph.D., is a urologist at Children’s National Hospital. Dr. Hsieh has experience in laparoscopic and robotic surgery for urologic conditions and specializes in bladder diseases affecting children and young adults. He is board-certified in urology and holds the certificate of added qualification in pediatric urology.
Dr. Hsieh was recruited to Children’s National and the George Washington University to serve as Director of Transitional Urology. This joint venture is the East Coast’s first clinical program dedicated to the care of adolescents and young adults with congenital urologic disorders. Many of these patients have chronic cystitis and are at increased risk of bladder cancer, diseases which dovetail with Dr. Hsieh’s research interests. Dr. Hsieh also is the Director of Research for the Division of Urology and the Associate Director for Science at the Sheik Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation. He runs an NIH-funded bladder biology research group, studying how the commensal microbiome (the collection of naturally occurring, non-pathogenic bacteria in and on our bodies) may prevent urinary tract infections.
More about the Hsieh Lab and his team’s research can be read here.
Children’s National Hospital
111 Michigan Avenue Northwest
Washington, DC20010
Phone: +1 888-884-2327
Ruth Kriz (now retired)
Diagnostic method DNA/NGS sequencing via blood and urine samples
Treatment regime Antibiotics/Antibiotic instillations
Clinic location Washington DC
Please note that Ruth has now retired from practice but please contact her office for information on practitioners in the US who continue her diagnostic and treatment methods for recurrent and chronic cystitis.
Before retirement Nurse Practitioner Ruth Kriz had in excess of 30 years of experience treating patients with Interstitial Cystitis and urinary tract infections. Prior to setting up her practice in Washington state she was a nursing teacher through to Master’s level for nurse practitioners. She also worked on longitudinal studies with the Johns Hopkins Research Centre and in several hospitals in coronary care, ICU, and emergency medicine. Her interest in tick-borne infections and biofilms was developed through her discovery of an association between these infections and interstitial cystitis. Ruth herself suffered from IC and Lyme disease for many years before researching and then being treated successfully for her co-infections.
Phone + 1 202 714 2415
Website ruthkriz.com
Getting the most out of your appointment
To make the most out of an appointment with any of these specialists we recommend you:
- Prepare a short one page history relating to your bladder and gynaecological issues in advance of your first appointment that you can refer to during the consult.
- Make a list of any medications and supplements you already take including any antibiotics you may take for recurrent UTIs. You may wish to bring with you copies of urine test results or the results from other investigative tests you have had such as ultrasounds, cystoscopies or other pelvic organ investigations.
- Write down all of your symptoms – UTI symptoms can vary for everyone. For example, do you have burning whilst urinating, lower abdominal pain, cloudy or smelly urine, fever, mental confusion? All of the above? List your present symptoms as well as those from previous infections so your healthcare provider can make an accurate assessment.
- Think about any behaviour or environment preceding when the symptoms of your UTI started. If you had a history of childhood UTIs, family can help with background.
- Make a list of questions in advance you would like answered during your consult and if appropriate, ask a family member or friend to accompany you. They can help to ask these questions and may think of more during the consult. Post-appointment, many have commented how useful it is to have someone with them to provide feedback, as inevitably it is difficult to remember every aspect of their time in consult.
- After each appointment, ask for copies of all test results your specialist may have ordered and request that you also receive a copy of subsequent correspondence sent to the GP from your specialist.