High-quality data on long-term outcomes is essential but still lacking in kidney stone research. Several stone registries have been attempted., however, most of them rely on manual data entry which is time-consuming, expensive, labor intensive, and less reliable. Recently, Dr. Thomas Chi has led an effort to design and implement ReSKU™ (Registry for Stones of the Kidney and Ureter) at UCSF. It is a longitudinal registry of patients with kidney stone disease and ties to an electronic medical record. Inpatient and outpatient data in all phases of care will be automatically extracted from the medical record and then organized in a secure online database.                                   

ReSKU™ acts as the backbone for all the research in the Chi Lab. Once any interesting findings are obtained from our ongoing basic research, researchers can then link these findings to all clinical data within ReSKU™ seamlessly. There is no need to look back at medical records and extract the data one by one accelerating the pace at which this research machinery can generate and validate new hypotheses. 

To date, four institutions on the west coast of the United States (University of California, San Francisco, University of California, San Diego, University of Washington, and Oregon Health and Science University), and one institution in China (Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital) have already been a part of ReSKU™. This well-organized collaboration is invaluable in conducting this multi-institution study. The number of participating institutions is also increasing, and ReSKU™, as an essential infrastructure, will eventually remove all barriers to performing high-quality research in kidney stone disease. 

Rationale and Design of the Registry for Stones of the Kidney and Ureter (ReSKU): A Prospective Observational Registry to Study the Natural History of Urolithiasis Patients. Chang HC, Tzou DT, Usawachintachit M, Duty BD, Hsi RS, Harper JD, Sorensen MD, Stoller ML, Sur RL, Chi T. J Endourol. 2016 Dec;30(12):1332-1338.   Read more...

A Prospective Case-Control Study Comparing LithoVue, a Single-Use, Flexible Disposable Ureteroscope, with Flexible, Reusable Fiber-Optic Ureteroscopes. Usawachintachit M, Isaacson DS, Taguchi K, Tzou DT, Hsi RS, Sherer BA, Stoller ML, Chi T.  J Endourol. 2017 Mar 13. doi: 10.1089/end.2017.0027.   Read more...