Blogs@BJUI

The urology tag ontology project defines a list of hashtags to standardise descriptors for use in social media. This was an agreed list by crowd sourcing the urological social media community. The project itself is discussed in more detail in Alexander Kutikov’s recent blog. New for 2017, at the BJUI we are phasing in hashtags into our journal articles under the ‘Key Words’ – so effectively Key Hashtags if you like. The aim of this is threefold. Firstly, to guide readers to relevant…

The first Article of the Month of 2017 comes from the Technical University of Munich, Germany. The cover image shows Munich's Frauenkirche and New Town Hall.     ©istock.com/sborisov   Click here for this issue’s Table of Contents    

‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ is an English idiom that has been in use for over a 100 years. Never has it been truer than in the age of social media, when fans are perhaps more interested in ‘selfies’ with their celebrity superstars than in their autographs! With this in mind, we at the BJUI launched infographics last year for some of our very best papers. And what a success it has been based on the positive responses from our avid readers on Twitter. The titles of the…

The authors of the Article of the Month in the December 2016 issue of BJUI are based in Bristol, Cardiff, London and Oxford, UK. The cover image shows some of Oxford’s “dreaming spires”, including the Radcliffe Camera and Christ Church College.     ©istock.com/oversnap   Click here for this issue’s Table of Contents    

The articles beneath headlines in the media relating to medicine rarely contain anything truly revolutionary or even anything particularly new despite what the headlines might have suggested.  We have all seen headlines promising a new cure for cancer, condemning an individuals practice and suggesting they are a charlatan and articles suggesting doctors are under-treating patients and depriving them of life changing care or over-treating patients and wasting and misusing limited resources.  More…

Hola como estas? The 36th SIU congress was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina 20-24th October. Their motto: 'we bring urologists together' was certainly fulfilled as reflected by the warm atmosphere and international mix of speakers and attendees. The scientific programme included plenary sessions, debates, hands on instructional courses, trainee Q&A sessions and symposiums. The location and facilities at the Hilton were first class. A large exhibition hall allowed for interaction with…

This issue’s Article of the Month is an important paper from São Paulo, Brazil. The cover image shows the Octavio Frias de Oliveira bridge over the Rio Pinheiros in São Paulo.     ©istock.com/wsfurlan   Click here for this issue’s Table of Contents    

We are having an amazing year of scientific discovery in our specialty. 2016 has already seen the results of the only randomised trial comparing open versus robotic radical prostatectomy from Australia and the ProtecT trial from UK discussed intensively on Blogs@BJUI. The PROMIS of MRI is expected to change the practice of prostate biopsies in response to a raised PSA. The teams completing these trials deserve our heartiest congratulations as it is well known how difficult randomised trials in surgery…

In this month's issue of the BJUI, we highlight the evolving era of immunotherapy in solid tumour therapy. As urological surgeons, we spend a large portion of our time working with anatomy, instruments, and robots – things we can see, touch, and control. Immunotherapy is a different conversation – cartoon pathways, process blockades, molecular expression levels, combination therapies, and treatment resistance. Curing a patient with a successful operation is a major draw to our field, but we know…