A Nurse Practitioner on Helping Men Own Their Cancer Care

Many men leave a cancer appointment, start the drive home and realize they can’t remember what was said, or what they meant to ask.

Joy Maulik, MSN, FNP-C, spent nearly a decade in urology and uro-oncology and built a prostate cancer clinic serving more than 3,500 men. Now a medical science liaison, he founded MyUrova, an app for patients with prostate, bladder, kidney and testicular cancers and their caregivers.

He spoke with CURE about why he created the app and how men can take ownership of their care.

CURE: What did you see in your work that made you want to build something for patients directly?

Maulik: I realized how much of a dichotomy there is between men’s and women’s health. Men, in general, do not take ownership of their health as well as women do, and we should learn from that.

In cancer especially, I saw how much emotional toll that diagnosis carried. I felt an app where they can get the answers they’re seeking, prep for an office visit or check back on what they heard may give them some more stability — [and show them] that a diagnosis is never the end of the road. It’s just the beginning of a different journey.

Many patients leave appointments realizing they forgot to ask something. How can the app help them prepare?

That’s the crucial thing, because the end product is you driving home and [wondering], “What did we talk about?” You’re hearing some and not hearing some. When you prep yourself better and have two or three identified questions that you really want to know, that helps you. The app shows you the common questions that come through, so you can highlight which one resonates with you.

The second thing is terminology. I wanted simple, plain language, so you are not getting buried in big, bombastic words. And when you come back from a visit, the app is a reference point that ties it back together.

What about patients who turn to Google or ChatGPT after a diagnosis?

In my practice, I always enjoyed people who came in and said, “When I put it into Google or ChatGPT, this told me this.” At least somebody is taking ownership of their health. Your job is to tell them, “Great. Now let’s find where you can get the best answers.”

The app gives you the resources you would find from guideline-based treatment for the category or grade of cancer you have. You go to one place and get the meat and potatoes in simple terms.

Black men are twice as likely as white men to die from prostate cancer, often because they are diagnosed at a later stage. How can education help close that gap?

Genetics play such an important role; in African American men, prostate cancer occurrence is really high, and mortality is high also. Closing that gap starts with understanding the disease and your age-dependent risk factors, so you know when you should be screened, and for what.

Think of an oil change every so many thousand miles. You don’t do it because your car isn’t running. You do it so you’re not going in when your engine is gone. The app can help you know, “This is my family lineage, and this is where I need to be for my screening.” I also made sure the app is not just in English, but in Spanish and Haitian Creole. Communication is key.

What should men know about quality of life after treatment, including sexual health?

Most prostate cancer is testosterone dependent, and altering that impacts a man mentally, physically and emotionally. My philosophy: I don’t think anybody can truly cure high blood pressure, but it can be managed. Cancer is the same. You can be in remission lifelong, but it can come back, and then there would be some sequencing of treatment.

Taking care of your heart and cardiovascular health helps in a lot of ways, especially sexual health. Sexual health can decline with or without cancer, so understand the milestones of your age. If you are not getting the information, seek it out and ask questions. Nobody will advocate for you as much as you will.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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