All News

Stretched by the 'RAC'

Federal regulators have judged the first phase of the Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program a success, but the controversial plan promises potential headaches for physicians as it moves into its second phase.

Contemporary financial challenges call for creative thinking on the part of the physician-cum-small business operator. One idea that is gaining popularity is in-office dispensing of medications.

Like everyone else, I'm frustrated and confused by the stock market and the global economic situation. How can I reduce the risk in my portfolio but still have it grow for the long term?

Physicians and managers are accustomed to dealing with staff members who aren't happy at work and can't seem to get along, but what do you do when it's the physicians and management who are at odds?

Two studies of blunt kidney trauma, one from Switzerland and one from the United States, reached essentially the same conclusion: Conservative management is likely to be the best path when confronting most cases of blunt renal trauma.

Vesicoureteral reflux appears to be the most common complication of ureteral reimplantation at the time of kidney transplantation, as indicated by findings from St. Barnabas Healthcare System, Livingston, NJ.

Perirenal hematoma characteristics determined by computed tomography may be suggestive of the need for angiographic embolization in patients who present with blunt renal trauma, a study from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, suggests.

Urology Times asked urologists around the country whether the ability of a dissatisfied patient to broadcast his discontent on the Internet has changed the way they deal with those patients and whether additional measures are needed to prevent those patients from trashing a physician's reputation online.

Rising temperatures associated with global warming may be accompanied by a significant, costly increase in the incidence of kidney stones. Climate change may increase stone incidence rates by up to 30% in some regions.

A small percentage of males born with cryptorchidism are more likely to have genetic mutations, including those for a syndrome that is a common genetic cause of infertility, according to a study by Italian researchers.

A new report from the nation's leading cancer organizations shows that, for the first time since the report was first issued in 1998, both incidence and death rates for all cancers combined are decreasing for both men and women, driven largely by declines in prostate, breast, and other common cancers.

Selenium may aid in the prevention of high-risk bladder cancer, according to a study by researchers from Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, NH. The news follows a less-encouraging report from the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT) showing that supplementation with selenium or vitamin E was not associated with a lower risk of prostate cancer.

The FDA has accepted the new drug application for a 6-month formulation of triptorelin pamoate (Trelstar), a luteinizing hormone releasing hormone agonist for the palliative treatment of advanced prostate cancer, according to Watson Pharmaceuticals, the drug's manufacturer.

A European phase III double-blind placebo controlled study of PSD502, a proprietary formulation of lidocaine and prilocaine for the treatment of premature ejaculation, has met its three co-primary endpoints of intra-vaginal ejaculation latency time (IELT) and index of premature ejaculation (IPE), Plethora Solutions Holdings PLC has announced.