Digital Reviews
Virtual reality: a novel approach to pain management during ESWL
Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) is a well-established treatment for kidney and ureteric stone disease, employing high-energy shock waves to fragment stones into smaller pieces for passage through the urinary tract. This article explores the application of virtual reality (VR)...
BAUS Web App
The British Association of Urological Surgeons (BAUS) launched a new web app in June 2024 [1] at their annual meeting in Birmingham. This innovative platform is designed to enhance the user experience for members.Unlike traditional apps, the BAUS web app...
Unlocking the potential of AI chatbots
The landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving rapidly, and one of its most exciting domains is large language models (LLMs) powering AI chatbots. These models hold immense potential to transform how we interact with technology, offering personalised assistance in...
Endourology Academy – a modern-day solution to modern-day training
In 2021, as a core trainee in urology, I found myself facing challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic, which led to limited theatre times for surgical exposure. Trying to grasp the basics of surgery with such restricted operative experience was...
An interview with ChatGPT (3.5)
For this month’s Digital Review I explored the hype surrounding Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) from Open AI. The free version is still available at https://chat.openai.com/chat (ChatGPT 3.5) and was used in this article. At the time of writing this...
Software to keep you up to date
Scientific literature continues to expand exponentially, with an average doubling period of 15 years [1]. Staying up to date is an ever-increasing challenge and our time is constantly being consumed by attention-hungry social media platforms, slow NHS IT systems and...
Creating online medical videos
Equipment When starting out with creating video content it can be overwhelming ensuring you have the right technology to help you create the best content. The truth is most of us have all we need in our pocket every day....
Online urology teaching
The COVID-19 crisis continues to disrupt our traditional models of teaching. Urological emergencies account for 20% of all acute surgical admissions and 5-10% of general practitioner visits [1]. Currently in the UK, undergraduate teaching on urology is not compulsory. Fewer...
Stone Pass: Kidney Stones app
For this Digital Review I have focused on the Stone Pass: Kidney Stones app (Know Stone LLC) – a new information tool for patients with ureteric stones. I had recently seen a shared tweet originating from the app’s author Dr...
Elements of AI
Given that a recent issue of Urology News focused on artificial intelligence (AI) in urology and potential problems it might bring, this month’s digital review focuses on a free course in artificial intelligence. Elements of AI (www.elementsofai.com) is a free...
EAU Patient Information 2019
Credible sources of medical information are difficult to find for patients and healthcare professionals. The European Association of Urologists (EAU) have updated their patient information website since our previous review last year. This digital review focuses on the patient information...
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence concerns me. Generally, people still tend to be concerned that their livelihoods will be replaced by an all powerful, all knowing artificial intelligence (AI) system. This at a time when the world’s largest technology companies (Amazon, Google, Apple),...
