Technology for remote working and COVID-19 resources

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered every aspect of how we live, and how healthcare needs to be provided for the welfare of patients and staff. I thought I would try to summarise a few potential technology tools that could be...

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),...

Improving on the Rotterdam Prostate Cancer Risk Calculator

Following the PROMIS trial [1], many cancer centres in the UK are now offering pre-biopsy multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) for men suitable for radical treatment. The European Association of Urology for Prostate Cancer (PCa) guidelines recommend individual risk stratification before the...

EBM Stats Calc: there’s a stat for that

Quantifying the value of a specific test or intervention for a patient is no easy feat. Even when the value of a given test or intervention has been established, there may be additional case-specific factors to consider that are not...

Cloud storage revisited

Cloud storage simply refers to digital files that are uploaded by users and stored remotely in the ‘cloud’ (usually these files are physically stored on servers owned by large companies e.g. Amazon, Microsoft, Dropbox and accessed via the web). In...

Conference apps

With conference season soon starting I thought I would run through some of the apps I think would be useful for delegates attending a urology conference in the coming year. The conference app It is often useful to download the...

Virtual and augmented reality in surgery

Virtual reality (VR) is a three-dimensional, computer generated environment which can be accessed using a virtual reality headset, allowing individuals to immerse themselves in this virtual world. Augmented reality (AR) systems layer virtual information over a live camera feed into...

Surgical risk prediction

Patients presenting for urological surgery range from the young and fit to the elderly with multiple, and often significant, coexistent diseases. This latter cohort can present a significant challenge in the perioperative period, sometimes irrespective of the type of surgery....

EAU Guidelines App

The European Association of Urology (EAU) continues to lead on the latest guidelines within urology. The all new EAU guidelines app brings together the pocket version of the EAU guidelines with a much improved user interface. Both the cancer and...

A research revolution

“The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.” Erenesto ‘Che’ Guevara There was a time, not so long ago, when you actually had to go to a library to read...