A nurse-led chronic disease management clinic in the urology department of a tertiary hospital recorded 14,013 outpatient registrations between July 2024 and September 2026, according to a single-center retrospective descriptive study using routinely collected service records. The clinic primarily supported long-term management of patients with prostate and bladder cancer while also providing specialty nursing services for other urological conditions. Its follow-up system marked 3,547 of 3,553 assigned tasks as successful, a task-level success rate of 99.83%. These figures describe service activity and record completion; the study did not measure whether the clinic improved clinical outcomes or economic performance.

The clinic was established in July 2024 within the hospital’s existing specialty nursing outpatient service framework. Its operating model included staffing and qualification requirements, professional training, clearly defined nursing responsibilities, physician–nurse collaboration, standardized procedures, information-system support and quality management. Nurses worked within their authorized scope of practice, while urologists participated in medical assessment and treatment decisions when required. The service had four reported components: patient assessment and follow-up planning; treatment follow-up and adverse-event monitoring; rehabilitation guidance and health promotion; and assistance with healthcare policies and basic nursing care.

Monthly registrations increased from 147 in July 2024 to a peak of 710 in August 2026, with fluctuations during the reporting period. Total registration fees were CNY 152,758. The clinic delivered 14,246 prostate cancer-related injections, 3,523 urinary catheterizations, 2,777 intravesical instillation procedures and 2,142 urinary catheter removals. It also assisted patients with prostate or bladder cancer in applying for outpatient chronic and special disease insurance benefits. The study reports these counts as routine service activities, but it did not compare the procedures with those delivered elsewhere or evaluate their individual clinical effects.

Follow-up management was integrated into the clinic’s information system, which contained records for 1,111 patients. Of these, 953 patients had been followed up and 951 had successful follow-up records. Nurses also executed 3,553 follow-up tasks, of which 3,547 were successful, corresponding to the reported 99.83% task-level rate. The descriptive data do not specify the duration or effectiveness of patient follow-up, assess whether missed contacts influenced treatment adherence or health outcomes, or establish how the results would compare with another care model.

Because the research covered one tertiary hospital and relied on routinely collected records, it cannot establish how the clinic would operate in smaller facilities, under different staffing arrangements or in other health systems. The findings offer a documented example of a nurse-led outpatient service with defined responsibilities, standardized workflows, follow-up documentation and collaboration with urologists. The authors stated that further research is needed to evaluate the model’s clinical outcomes and economic implications. Accordingly, the registration growth, procedural workload and high proportion of completed follow-up tasks should be interpreted as descriptions of implementation and recorded service delivery, not as evidence of improved survival, fewer complications, lower costs or other patient benefits.

Subject of Research: Operation and service activity of a nurse-led chronic disease management clinic in hospital urology

Article Title: Development and implementation of a nurse-led chronic disease management clinic in the urology department of a tertiary hospital: a descriptive study

Article References: Liu, C., Xia, Y., Jia, X., Wang, R., Li, T., Ma, Y., & Long, H. (2026). Development and implementation of a nurse-led chronic disease management clinic in the urology department of a tertiary hospital: a descriptive study. BMC Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-026-05566-z

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12912-026-05566-z

Keywords: nurse-led care, urology, outpatient nursing, chronic disease management, prostate cancer, bladder cancer, patient follow-up, service implementation, descriptive study, Development, implementation, nurse-led

System can estimate a person’s biological age and predict chances of cancer survival from a single photograph

Doctors have developed an artificial intelligence tool that can predict a cancer patient’s chances of survival from a single photograph of their face.

The AI system was custom-built by experts at Mass General Brigham, a nonprofit, integrated academic healthcare system in Massachusetts, to estimate biological age and directly predict survival outcomes in patients diagnosed with cancer.

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© Photograph: Addictive Stock Creatives/Alamy

© Photograph: Addictive Stock Creatives/Alamy

© Photograph: Addictive Stock Creatives/Alamy

If you’re one of the over 100 million people around the world who regularly hits the vape, you might want to think about ways to start cutting back.

According to some recent research by scientists from Seoul National University and published in Nature Medicine, the use of non-tobacco devices like vapes and e-cigarettes to help quit smoking carries a strong link with the development of lung cancer.

The researchers analyzed anonymous health data from over 4.5 million Korean adults. They were split into three main groups: current smokers, short-term quitters, and long-term quitters. They were then categorized by whether they vaped daily during a 2018 screening in the Korean National Health survey, with adjustments to control for factors like age, sex, and prior health conditions.

In all, scientists found that those who had turned to vaping after quitting traditional cigarettes developed lung cancer at a rate about 56 percent higher than those who quit entirely. Alarmingly, incidents of lung cancer death among vape users nearly doubled, with a lung cancer-specific death rate 91 percent higher than non-vape users.

Of course, there’s an important group that falls outside the bounds of the study: anyone who got hooked on vaping without trying cigarettes first. It’d be fascinating to learn more about their fates, but the implication of the study — that vaping is turbocharging the chances of cancer among former smokers — is almost certainly cause for alarm.

While it may be easy for non-smokers to roll their eyes at the findings, it’s important to note that empirical data on the relationship between vaping and lung cancer remains relatively scarce.

“Although epidemiological and biological studies support the association between e-cigarettes and various respiratory disorders, evidence regarding the relationship between e-cigarettes and lung cancer risk remains limited,” the researchers wrote.

It’s an observational study, meaning that it can’t establish true causality. Going forward, more research is needed to say for sure whether there’s a causal association between vaping and cancer — but the early data doesn’t look pretty.

More on smoking: Scientists Say Test Subjects Were Able to Quit Smoking After They Blasted Their Brains With a Huge Magnet

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