Non-smoking rooms in hotels operating a partial smoking ban do not protect their occupants from tobacco smoke, reveals research published online in the journal Tobacco Control.

This week, Dara Gantly examines the Smaller Hospitals Framework report.

Dr Muiris Houston looks at some of the concerns being expressed about the forthcoming DSM-5 and the potential risks of labelling healthy people as having psychiatric problems.

Dr Ruairi Hanley believes the tough job of restoring Ireland’s shattered pride in the europop song contest, Eurovision, may be something for the plastic-bag wearing hard men from Limerick.

Living close to a major road may impair kidney function — itself a risk factor for heart disease and stroke — and so help contribute to the known impact of air pollution on cardiovascular risk, suggests research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Minimally-invasive autopsies, using a combination of MRI scans and other techniques such as blood tests, can accurately determine the cause of death in foetuses and babies almost as well as conventional autopsies, according to new research published in The Lancet.

The benefit of helmet legislation to reduce admissions to hospital for head injuries remains “substantially uncertain”, concludes a study published on bmj.

By Catherine Reilly.

By Lloyd Mudiwa.

By Lloyd Mudiwa.