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In most urology practices, patients will spend more time with the office staff than with the physician. Therefore, it is essential that the staff is highly motivated to ensure that patients' interaction with the staff remains at a high level from the moment they walk into the reception area and check in at the desk until they make their next appointment and check out.

In an update to its 2004 recommendation, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has concluded that the current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening for bladder cancer in asymptomatic adults.

Nearly half of men undergoing radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer expect better recovery from the side effects of the surgery than they actually attain 1 year after the operation, recent study findings indicate.

Current cigarette smokers have a higher risk of bladder cancer than previously reported, and the risk in women is comparable to that in men, say the authors of a study from the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD.

When used as a supplement to an elevated PSA reading, a new urine test that detects instances of a specific genetic anomaly and the presence of the PCA3 marker can help men delay or avoid biopsy while identifying patients at the highest risk for clinically significant prostate cancer, the authors of a recently published study report.

Patients who undergo radical nephrectomy experience a significantly higher incidence of osteoporosis and fractures when compared with those who undergo partial nephrectomy, according to a recent study.

The American Medical Association and 91 state and specialty medical societies, including the AUA, recently submitted formal comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on the proposed changes to the electronic prescribing penalty program.

In premenopausal women who have repeated urinary tract infections, the antibiotic trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX [Bactrim, Septra DS]) appears to be more effective than cranberry capsules for preventing recurrent infections, at the risk of contributing to antibiotic resistance, Dutch researchers recently reported.

Hard-to-match kidney transplant candidates who receive a treatment designed to make their bodies more accepting of incompatible organs are twice as likely to survive 8 years after transplant surgery as those who stay on dialysis for years awaiting compatible organs, say researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore.

A bipartisan group of senators whose states are home to imaging equipment manufacturers recently wrote President Obama, urging against any cutbacks in Medicare reimbursements for imaging.

Late-stage advanced prostate cancer tumors appear to be driven by a different hormonal pathway than was previously thought, and now, researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, have narrowed potential drug targets.

Correction

A recent "Hands On" article in Urology Times ("Post-prostate biopsy infection: Incidence and preventive steps," July 2011, pages 40-41) included a Figure that contained an error.

While very few legislatures remain in session after July 1, from late summer into early fall and beyond, so-called interim committees meet with regularity to establish much of the agenda that will be considered the next year.