He started a urology practice in Stockton. Not San Francisco. Not Oakland. Stockton - and built it into four clinics before most people had heard of in-office MRI. That's the thing about Prithipal Sethi: the trajectory makes sense only in retrospect.
Dr. Prithipal S. Sethi arrived in urology the long way around. A BS in Cell and Molecular Biology from UC Berkeley. A medical degree from St. Louis University School of Medicine. A residency at Medical College of Wisconsin. By 2004 he was practicing urology in Stockton, California - deep in the Central Valley, not a place people usually mean when they say they're building a healthcare company. He founded Golden State Urology in 2007 with a single location. By the time anyone noticed, it had four.
The practice expanded to Lodi, Elk Grove, and Sacramento. In 2018, Golden State Urology took home the Best of Stockton Award for Urologist. Centers of Excellence designations followed - for UroLift, for Promaxo's MRI system. These aren't plaques you put on a wall because you wrote a good grant. They come from volume. From doing the procedures, over and over, until the outcomes are hard to argue with.
The MRI in the Room
Here is what standard prostate cancer diagnosis looked like before companies like Promaxo entered the picture: a patient gets an MRI at a hospital radiology department, waits days for results, returns to the urologist, then goes back for a biopsy. Each step is a separate appointment, a separate scheduling battle, a separate opportunity for things to fall apart. Sethi watched this for years.
Golden State Urology was among the first practices in Northern California to deploy Promaxo's in-office MRI system - making it possible to image, biopsy, and treat under full MR guidance without the patient leaving the urology clinic. Sethi didn't just buy the machine. He became the clinical proof of concept.
Our practice is rooted in providing comprehensive care to patients, with strong interest in advanced technologies and novel treatments for convenient, optimal care. Adding the Promaxo system into our practice builds upon our principle. We are excited to partner with Promaxo as the first Northern California practice that enables early and targeted biopsies and treatment of urologic cancers under complete MR guidance.
- Dr. Prithipal S. Sethi, on Golden State Urology becoming a Promaxo Center of ExcellenceIn December 2022, Promaxo named him Chief Medical Officer. The title reflects where his value actually sits: not in administration, but in the combination of clinical credibility and firsthand system experience that makes him the right person to guide how this technology gets used at scale.
What a CMO Actually Does When the Technology Is the Product
Promaxo's system is compact, low-field, and FDA 510(k) cleared for prostate biopsy and treatment. It fits in a urology office without major infrastructure changes. The pitch to other urologists is essentially: you don't need a hospital radiology department. You can do this here. Making that case convincingly requires someone who has already done it. That's Sethi.
In July 2023, he presented at the Society of Robotic Surgery Annual Meeting, speaking on Promaxo's biopsy robot in urology and sitting as a panelist in the Plenary session on innovative robotic systems. That's the clinical community talking to the clinical community - a conversation that press releases can't replicate.
As a physician, I am passionate about improving patient care and have a deep understanding of the challenges and inefficiencies along the patient journey. I believe that technology has the power to improve outcomes and address inefficiencies that are present today.
- Dr. Prithipal S. Sethi, on joining Promaxo as Chief Medical OfficerThe Stockton Formula
What made Golden State Urology work was the same thing that made Sethi's relationship with Promaxo work: he picked a problem, went deep on the procedure, and accumulated enough volume that the results spoke for themselves. Over 2,500 enlarged prostate procedures. Lead researcher status on emerging BPH treatments. A practice that earned multiple Centers of Excellence not by applying but by hitting the benchmarks.
Golden State Urology - The Scope of Practice
- Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) and novel treatments
- Minimally invasive prostate procedures
- MRI-guided prostate biopsy and treatment
- Kidney, ureteral, and bladder stones
- Urinary incontinence and disorders
- Prostatitis and urethral stricture
- Urologic surgery and cystourethroscopy
- Hematuria (blood in urine) evaluation
The UroLift system designation is worth understanding specifically. UroLift is a mechanical treatment for BPH that lifts and holds enlarged prostate tissue out of the way without cutting or removing it. It offers symptom relief without the sexual side effects common to other BPH drugs and surgeries. To be designated a Center of Excellence, a physician must hit high training benchmarks and outcome standards - and Sethi got there on volume, not networking.
With the UroLift System, symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia can be treated with a state of art system that provides rapid improvement of symptoms with the ability to wean off long-term medications.
- Dr. Prithipal S. SethiPromaxo's Bigger Picture
Promaxo closed a $32M Series B3 round in June 2024, led by Zynext Ventures - the VC arm of global pharma company Zydus Lifesciences. Total funding now sits north of $80M. The company has deployed at Mount Sinai, Carolina Urology, Las Vegas Urology, and other major networks. The expansion roadmap goes beyond prostate: female pelvic, kidney, breast, and orthopedics are all on the clinical horizon.
What that means for Sethi is that the medical officer role grows as the clinical indications grow. He's not managing one product line - he's helping shape the clinical strategy for a platform technology finding its footing across multiple specialties.