For nearly a century, the third year of medical school has been a pivotal point in training, a crucial step in the development of professional skills and attitudes toward patients. Recently, however, the tradition of monthlong “rotations” – has come under fire. The Harvard Medical School-Cambridge Integrated Clerkship at Cambridge Health Alliance is highlighted as an innovative third-year program. David Hirsh, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance and director and co-founder of the innovative program, is quoted.

Warren Buffett’s revelation that his prostate cancer was diagnosed with the help of a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test threatens to reignite controversy that the medical community hoped had been settled last year over the usefulness of the test. Michael Barry, HMS clinical professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, is quoted.

A team led by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have devised a new, less-invasive technique that could one day be used to diagnose brain cancer and monitor a tumor’s response to treatment, without surgery. Anna Krichevsky, HMS assistant professor of neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, was the leader of the study.