A 240-year-old drug called digoxin could save the National Health Service (NHS) at least £100 million each year when treating older patients with atrial fibrillation and heart failure. This was compared to usual treatment with a beta-blocker according to a new study published in the journal Heart from the University of Birmingham, the city where digoxin was first used in 1785.

A study assessed the impact of electric fans on the body core temperature and heart rate of 18 participants aged 65-85 years, who were exposed to a simulated extreme indoor environment of 36°C with 45 per cent relative humidity for eight hours. The results showed participants were unaffected by fan use, with all three of the experimental conditions resulting in an average body core temperature of 38.3°C and heart rate of 100 beats per minute. 

The study found that the rates of patients leaving before medically advised increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were 721 million emergency department visits from 2016 to 2021, of which 194 million (26.9  percent) occurred after March 2020. Patients left before medically advised in 5.9 million emergency department visits during the study period—especially in the second, third and fourth quarters of 2020 and fourth quarter of 2021—for a 53.6 percent increase over pre-pandemic levels. The researchers noted that the increase could be the result of concern about COVID-19 infection and dissatisfaction with longer waiting times and other factors triggered by the surge in pandemic-related demands on hospitals.

Increased use of ventilation and air cleaners, designed to mitigate the spread of viral infections in hospitals, is likely to have unpredictable effects and may cause viral particles to move around more, according to a new study from researchers at UCL and UCLH.

Researchers stressed that taking a harm reduction approach does not condone nor subtly encourage high-risk alcohol use among college students; instead, this theoretical application allows for a practical approach targeting students’ attitudes, social norms and other protective factors known to reduce alcohol use. This approach would be specifically designed to address a population of at-risk students known to engage in harmful levels of drinking more frequently than their non-college peers.