Twenty years ago, a man I revered calmly shared the news that he had just been diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer. Frank A. Oski, MD, was chair of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins, a beloved, iconic, and iconoclastic figure to thousands of students, faculty, and practicing clinicians throughout the realm of children's health care, a brilliant mind who loved nothing better than tweaking the pretensions of the medically effete.

Vaccine for advanced castration-resistant prostate cancer prolongs life by a median of four months, but at an extremely high cost.

One practitioner's perceived good deed for a dying patient could be another's definition of homicide. In No Good Deed: A Story of Medicine, Murder, Accusations, and the Debate over How We Die (HarperCollins), Lewis M. Cohen, MD, examines the true story of two renal nurses at Baystate Medical Center (Springfield, Mass.) who were investigated for murder in 2001 after a nursing assistant accused them of causing the death of a patient.

Many Americans harbor fears about the Canadian health care system, and I would like to clear up some misconceptions. A fundamental premise of the system is that all Canadians are entitled to health care as a right, not a privilege.

The pending legislation on health care reform can be polarizing, but the motivation supporting it is not. Operating under the assumption that use of preventative and therapeutic health care services improves outcomes, it is hard to imagine who, in the medical community, would not favor improved health care access and utilization for those who are uninsured.

An international research team led by Stan Kmoch, PhD, of the Center for Applied Genomics and Institute for Inherited Metabolic Disorders of Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, have identified a number of families suffering from a mutation in the signal peptide of the renin gene that lead to the development of autosomal dominant CKD.

The following listings of clinical trials are based on information from the ClinicalTrials.gov Web site maintained by the National Institutes of Health. Only trials that are currently enrolling patients are included.

The physician might have avoided the lawsuit if he had taken the time to speak to the patient about what the patient hoped the outcome would be, and what, realistically, might happen given the fact that he had other health-issues that were not being attended to.

A patient's initial work-up resulted in a diagnosis of prostatitis.

It's essential to keep accurate and detailed records of all patient visits—even those visits where patients follow-up with a partner.

The Florida Board of Medicine has fined a Broward County, Fla., surgeon $5,000 for removing a healthy kidney from an 83-year-old patient instead of taking out his gallbladder, the Miami Herald reported.

The physician owner of a Las Vegas area endoscopy clinic and two nurse anesthetists were indicted on 28 felony counts stemming from a 2008 hepatitis outbreak caused by the reuse of syringes and endoscopy scopes.

The Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) released its 2010 Physician Practice Environment Index, and the outlook was not good.

Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD), based in Franklin Lakes, N.J., has launched the BD Ultrafine Nano, which the company says is the world's smallest pen needle.

Hisamitu Pharmaceutical, which has U.S. headquarters in Torrance, Calif., has introduced two over-the-counter pain relief patches to the American market, the Salonpas Pain Relief Patch and Salonpas Arthritis Pain patch.

Abbott has received FDA clearance to market FreeStyle Lite glucose test strips. The test strips minimize interference during blood glucose testing and are designed to offer a better experience, Abbott says.

Pulmonary hypertension (PHT) independently predicts greater mortality in hemodialysis (HD) patients, Israeli researchers report.

Among older individuals, an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) below 45 mL/min/1.73 m2 is associated with a nearly twofold increased risk of hip-fracture-related mortality, according to British researchers.

Intermittent hormonal therapy (IHT) for men with locally advanced and metastatic prostate cancer is associated with no reduction in disease progression or survival, according to a European study.

The condition occurs frequently in both pre-dialysis and dialysis patients, but correction with either sodium bicarbonate or sodium citrate is safe and effective.

New evidence supports CKD patient use of keto acid supplements, which provide protein without overloading the kidneys.

Supplementation could provide a low-cost way to protect against cardiovascular events.

In the rollercoaster markets of recent years, many fund investors engaged in self-destructive trading. As markets approached their trough in March 2009, shareholders panicked and began dumping their stock mutual funds.

Now is a good time to examine your bond portfolio and get ready for the day when rates rise

Warren Buffett has often talked about investing in companies that are protected by "wide moats." Such businesses dominate their markets for years because of advantages that competitors cannot duplicate.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is evaluating clinical data entered into its CROWNWeb system by participating Phase 2 facilities against that provided by dialysis facilities nationwide. This evaluation is allowing CMS to determine if the data entered into the CROWNWeb system are comparable to that previously provided in other ways, and to establish if the data entries are in line with benchmarks currently set for the end-stage renal disease (ESRD) Clinical Performance Measures (CPMs) and Fistula First Breakthrough Initiative (FFBI).

For more than four decades, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has had as its mission the advancement of effective, up-to-date health-care coverage and the promotion of quality care for beneficiaries. Toward this end, CMS will launch a new data-collection system called CROWNWeb that allows end-stage renal disease (ESRD) facilities to report relevant data in an accurateand timely manner.

FOR NEPHROLOGY practices bringing a new physician on board and physicians searching for a practice, success ultimately is measured in terms of establishing a long-term relationship that meets the most critical needs of all involved and results in a seamless integration of new clinical staff.

The risk for CKD is influenced by many factors, some of which depend on how patients are treated before, during, and after transplantation.

Distinguishing life-threatening from indolent tumors has not been possible thus far, but this could change with the debut of better tests.

The condition can be challenging to diagnose because it frequently refers to a vague constellation of pelvic pain and voiding symptoms.