The 5-item Frailty Index (5i-FI) accurately predicts morbidity and mortality after radical prostatectomy, cystectomy, and partial nephrectomy. Now, Brigham researchers report the 5i-FI is also useful for predicting surgical complications after endoscopic treatment for benign prostatic obstruction.

Flexible ureteroscopy (URS) is the most commonly used surgical procedure to treat nephrolithiasis, and Brigham researchers have begun to evaluate how surgeon movements affect URS efficiency. They report results from a pilot study that should inform improvement in endoscopist training and evaluation.

As part of the United Against Racism initiative, Mass General Brigham implemented outreach programs across the system to reduce healthcare disparities. Quoc-Dien Trinh, MD, MBA, discusses the program he co-founded and the research his team is doing to improve care for people of color at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Implantable devices for drug delivery to the bladder require surgical implantation and removal. Scientists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have invented a biodegradable ring-shaped implantable device (BRID) for long-term and local drug delivery inside the bladder that does not require a retrieval procedure.

Radical cystectomy (RC) is a complex procedure requiring the urinary system’s reconstruction. Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers, including Lorine Haeuser, MD, and Matthew Mossanen, MD, MPH, report higher complication rates after both extremely short and extremely long RC procedures.

Surgeons commonly voice the opinion that work relative value units (wRVUs) do not accurately quantify surgeon workload or determine appropriate reimbursement. Brigham researchers investigated and found wRVUs correlate well with mean operative time for the most common surgical procedures across various specialties.

Brigham researchers are closer to being able to predict a patient’s response to multiple prostate cancer therapies at once, with an implantable and retrievable device about the size of a grain of rice. Oliver Jonas, PhD, the inventor of the device, discusses its development and path to regulatory approval.

In a nationwide survey sent to in vitro fertilization and andrology clinic laboratory directors, Brigham researchers identified a gap between the ability of U.S. laboratories to recognize globozoospermia, a rare cause of male factor infertility, and the extent to which they report it to the clinician.