University hospitals--design excellence

University hospitals represent an infrastructure of strategic importance for any country. They allow an excellent standard of care to be attained by ensuring both a high level of training for health professionals (physicians and nonphysician practitioners), and the carrying out of biomedical and health research of international resonance. They may also be powerful promoters of biomedical innovation through technology transfer activities. Given their significance, it is important that research is undertaken both into the backdrop against which current university hospitals are designed, and the development of such establishments' role in the future, as well as into the optimal organisational model to respond, and adapt to, changes in medical education and care delivery. This article will consider the main issues that are the focus of international debate, highlighting design solutions of value to designers and researchers alike.