Amid growing concerns about hospital infections and a rise in drug-resistant bacteria, the attire of doctors, nurses and other health care workers — worn both inside and outside the hospital — is getting more attention. While infection control experts have published extensive research on the benefits of hand washing and equipment sterilization in hospitals, little is known about the role that ties, white coats, long sleeves and soiled scrubs play in the spread of bacteria.

U.S. hospitals and long-term care facilities annually flush millions of pounds of unused pharmaceuticals down the drain, pumping contaminants into America's drinking water, according to an ongoing Associated Press investigation.

Four NHS hospitals and a university last night disclosed plans for a £2bn business partnership to create the largest biomedical research organisation in Europe. The venture - to be called UCL Partners - seeks to establish London as an intellectual powerhouse for the invention of new drugs and treatments. It is being set up by University College London, its sister hospital UCLH, Great Ormond Street hospital for children, Moorfields eye hospital and the Royal Free Hampstead.

The overwhelmingly negative slant that the media give to reporting of the health service in Britain does not reflect the experiences of newscaster Jon Snow or those of people he talks to, he recounts.

Noise is an environmental pollutant and a potential health hazard. The incidence of several morbid conditions, such as depression, insomnia, and lack of concentration increases in urban areas where noise levels are high. Noise pollution in hospitals can be substantial—approaching the levels of chainsaws or jackhammers—making it nearly impossible for patients to rest and heightening their sensitivity to pain or discomfort. This holds true both for critically ill patients and for chronically ill patients admitted for repeated treatments such as hemodialysis.

The United States spends more on health care than any other nation in the world, yet it ranks poorly on nearly every measure of health status. How can this be? What explains this apparent paradox? The two-part answer is deceptively simple — first, the pathways to better health do not generally depend on better health care, and second, even in those instances in which health care is important, too many Americans do not receive it, receive it too late, or receive poor-quality care. In this lecture, I first summarize where the United States stands in international rankings of health status. Next, using the concept of determinants of premature death as a key measure of health status, I discuss pathways to improvement, emphasizing lessons learned from tobacco control and acknowledging the reality that better health (lower mortality and a higher level of functioning) cannot be achieved without paying greater attention to poor Americans. I conclude with speculations on why we have not focused on improving health in the United States and what it would take to make that happen.

Working in conjunction with the UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Imperial College London (ICL) has created a virtual hospital in the 3D virtual world of Second Life and a series of ‘machinima’ documentary films that describe what healthcare of the future could look like.

The UK’s first virtual hospital opens to the public this week to demonstrate the future of London’s healthcare network. The Second Health project allows visitors to explore a three-dimensional model of a clinic, created within the online world of Second Life. As users travel around the virtual hospital, they can watch multimedia presentations demonstrating the activities of specific departments.

British scientists are developing a virus-laden cream that must be prodded up the noses of doctors, nurses, patients and their visitors in the hope of halting the spread of the hospital superbug, MRSA. The cream, which could be available in two years, contains a cocktail of viruses that kill dangerous bacteria in the nasal passages, but are otherwise harmless. Human trials of the cream are expected next year following lab tests which proved the viruses were lethal to 15 strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus commonly found in hospitals.