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

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.

He 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.

He 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

Diagnostic method  Standard urine analysis and DNA/NGS sequencing
Treatment method   Antibiotics
Clinic location  Washington D.C.
Dr Hsieh is a graduate of Stanford University and Thomas Jefferson University. He holds a PhD in immunology and has a specific interest in the role of bladder inflammation in urinary tract infections and development of bladder cancer. He completed his urology residency training at the University of California San Francisco and pediatric urology fellowship training at Texas Children’s Hospital.

Dr Hsieh researches the commensal microbiome, the collection of naturally occurring, non-pathogenic bacteria in and on our bodies and how they may prevent urinary tract infections. More about the Hsieh Lab and his team’s research can be read here. In addition to mid-stream urine analysis, Dr Hsieh offers Expanded Quantitative Urine Culture (EQUC) and works with Pathnostics and Microgen DX both of whom offer PCR and Next Generation Sequencing.  Read more about these methods of urine culture diagnosis.

He can be seen in person (applicable to US and international patients) at the George Washington Medical Faculty facility in Washington DC. However he can only provide telemedicine consults via Zoom for US patients who hold the appropriate insurance which allow telemedicine consults. This is currently not available for international patients but he plans to offer this shortly.  His office can provide more information.

The George Washington Medical Faculty Associates
22nd & I Street, NW
2nd Floor
Washington, DC 20037
Telephone  + 1 (202) 741-3100
www.gwdocs.com

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.