Medical Alumni Symposium – 25th August

25th August 14.00 – 17.00, Stanley Quek Lecture Hall
‘Life Well Lived: From Jonathan Swift to Today’ – Keynote lecture by Professor Jim Lucey, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Trinity College Dublin, and Medical Director of Mental Health Services, St Patrick’s Hospital. In the year of the 350th birthday anniversary of Jonathan Swift, who left a bequest to found St Patrick’s Hospital, Professor Lucey takes stock of his legacy, the value of mental health to a life well lived and progress made in the delivery of mental health.

Trinity Alumni Weekend 25th-27th August

The Alumni Weekend 2017 takes place on campus from 25th - 27th August. This event is open to all alumni graduates who are marking an anniversary year are particularly encouraged to attend. Graduates are welcome to attend the whole weekend or to book individual events. Full information on the Alumni Weekend 2017 Programme can be found on the Trinity Alumni site here www.tcd.ie/alumni/weekend

2017 Uniphar CROSS Atlantic Cycle Launched

The Uniphar CROSS Atlantic Cycle, a charity cycle which raises funds for essential equipment used by the cancer research teams at Trinity College Dublin and St James's Hospital Dublin, was recently officially launched at Trinity. The annual charity cycle will take place from Sunday September 3rd 2017 to Thursday September 7th 2017 and will be led by former Ireland International and Lions rugby player Paul Wallace along with fellow rugby legends. The cycle will take place along the Wild Atlantic Way, starting in Sneem Co Kerry and finishing in Galway City. The cycle is supported by Uniphar and all proceeds raised from the event will be donated to CROSS. Over 300 cyclists will participate in the five-stage event in September and cyclists can join the CROSS Atlantic Cycle for any of the one-day stages or cycle the full tour. Please visit www.crossatlanticcycle.com for more information about the event, or to register for the whole tour or a stage. If you would like to be part of Team Trinity please contact Zhanna O’Clery.

Cancer Week Ireland 2017

Launched in September 2014 by the Irish Cancer Society (ICS) and Trinity College Dublin, Cancer Week Ireland has a dedicated website http://cancerweek.ie. This year’s events during the Cancer Week Ireland at Trinity include – a public symposium “Cancer Research Frontiers” 26 September. If you are interested in organising an event as part of Cancer Week Ireland, please contact Zhanna O’Clery.

Date for your diary, 4th Global Forum on Human Resources for Health

The 4th Global Forum on Human Resources for Health will be held in Dublin from 13-17 November 2017. Co-hosts alongside Trinity College Dublin include the World Health Organization, the Global Health Workforce Network, Irish Aid, the Department of Health and the Health Service Executive. The Forum represents a unique opportunity to engage a multi-sectoral group of actors across the education, finance, health and labour sectors; multilateral and bilateral agencies; academic institutions; health professional associations and civil society, in a coherent advocacy platform. Abstract submission and registration open now. More detail available here. 

Trinity Medical Graduate elected Taoiseach

Trinity medical graduate, Leo Varadkar has been elected as Taoiseach. He is the first Trinity graduate to become Taoiseach.
Read more»

Congratulations to the Medicine Final Class of 2017

Congratulations to the Occupational Therapy Final Class of 2017

Congratulations to the Physiotherapy Final Class of 2017

Congratulations to the Radiation Therapy Final Class of 2017

Congratulations to the Human Health and Disease Final Class of 2017

Four New Academic Internship Posts for St James’s Hospital to be launched July ‘17

A national academic track for medical internship has been created, allowing for the first time in Ireland a combined clinical and research post for newly graduated doctors. Four of the St James’s interns will participate in this track, with proposed projects in areas ranging from neonatology to vascular surgery. The academic track aims to help launch the careers of future academic clinicians and retain medical talent in Ireland.

Level 9 Postgraduate Diploma in Population Health and Health Services Research (PHHSR)

The SPHeRE Programme is launching a new and innovative Level 9 Postgraduate Diploma in Population Health and Health Services Research (PHHSR) that will be made available for the first time in September 2017. This qualification will be jointly awarded by RCSI, TCD and UCC — a first in the Irish health education landscape. The course, as a skills-building and career enhancing award, will be delivered primarily online offering flexibility of access to busy practitioners and senior applicants. To receive more information on this programme contact the SPHeRE programme office.

Professor Terence Dwyer Sc.D. honored

Recently Professor Terry Dwyer received an honorary degree from Trinity. To mark the occasion the School of Medicine hosted a coffee morning with the Australian Ambassador, His Excellency, Mr Richard Andrews, in the Knowledge Exchange, TBSI, on Monday morning, 26th June 2017.

Professor Terry Dwyer, formerly Director of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and Director of the Menzies Research Institute, University of Tasmania, is currently Executive Director of The George Institute for Global Health, University of Oxford. The seminal research of the team he led on the positioning of infants during sleep led to revision of the international recommendations with a consequent significant reduction in cot deaths. He has chaired many high level health advisory bodies and has received many national and international honours. He has been an international scientific advisor to the Health Research Board and a valued advisor to Trinity, the ESRI, and the Department of Health and Children on the Growing Up in Ireland study.

M.Sc. in Health Services Management June Guest Lectures: Moving Towards a World-Class Health Service

The M.Sc. in Health Services Management hosted our June Guest Lectures this year on the theme of “Moving Towards a World-Class Health Service: Learning from International and Irish Experiences”. Leading Irish leaders in healthcare policy, research, and service delivery were joined by a range of international experts from Scandinavia, Cuba, New Zealand and the UK. Lessons were shared on a range of topics from acute to community care, from emergency care and telemedicine to citizen-led healthcare and spirituality in health. Alumni from the Class of 2016 took part in complimentary presentations on their MSc dissertations, and the sessions were rounded off by a panel discussion on Brexit implications for cross-border healthcare. For more information, please contact Mandy Lee, Assistant Professor and Course Coordinator, Centre for Health Policy and Management, at mandy.lee@tcd.ie

Study Trip to to Denmark by M.Sc. in Health Services Management Alumni, Students and Staff

Alumni, students and staff members from the M.Sc. in Health Services Management took part in a study visit to a number of leading Danish healthcare facilities and the World Health Organisation Europe Headquarters in late June. We visited the Skylab at the DTU University and heard talks about Danish healthcare innovation, visited the pioneering cancer rehabitation centre in Copenhagen and the command-and-control centre of the Copenhagen Emergency Care Coordination Centre, and heard from policy experts in e-health from the WHO. The visit was rounded off by an invited visit to the Irish Embassy in Denmark where our delegates met with the Irish Ambassador Her Excellency Cliona Managhan. For more information, please contact Mandy Lee, Assistant Professor and Course Coordinator, Centre for Health Policy and Management, at mandy.lee@tcd.ie
Read more»

Students Vs. Professors 7th Annual Soccer Match "El Classico"

The annual soccer match between students and professors took place on Friday 28th April (Results Day). The students emerged victorious with a final score of 2-0. Well done to all involved.

Niamh Apsell Wins Nutrition Society Postgraduate Award

Niamh Aspell wins a Nutrition Society Postgraduate Competition 2017 Award and is invited to present her work entitled ‘Is there a role for vitamin D in supporting cognitive function as we age?’ at the Society’s conference at Queens University Belfast 22nd June. Niamh, is an Irish Research Council Scholar and supervised by Associate Professor Maria O’Sullivan and Professor Brian Lawlor.

Launch of H. pylori Care App

The Irish Helicobacter pylori Working Group (IHpWG), established in 2016 by its Chairperson Prof Deirdre McNamara, Director TAGG Research Centre, Trinity College Dublin, launched a mobile app called H. pylori Care on June 16th at the Science Gallery. Development of the app was supported by a HRB KEDS award. It is designed to enhance access to Ireland's first national clinical guidelines for the management of H. pylori infection. Developed by Glassbyte Limited, a Trinity campus company, it contains useful treatment information for both clinicians and patients.

School of Medicine Provost Teaching Awards

There were three School of Medicine recipients of the Provost Teaching Awards, announced in early June.

The 2017 recipients, pictured left to right were: Dr Marie Morris, School of Medicine, Professor Michael King, School of Social Sciences and Philosophy, Professor Mairead Brady, School of Business, Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast, Professor Susan O’Callaghan, School of Medicine and Professor Anita O’Donovan, School of Medicine.

Professors Ursula Fearon and Brendan Kelly elected to Professorial Fellowship

Congratulations to Ursula Fearon and Brendan Kelly who were elected to Professorial Fellowship on Trinity Monday.

Dr. Laure Marignol, Elected to Fellowship

Congratulations to Dr. Laure Marignol, Discipline of Radiation Therapy, who was elected to Fellowship on Trinity Monday.

Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Healthcare

The Centre for Health Policy and Management is currently in the second year of a three-year HRB funded project Mapping the Pathways to Universal Healthcare in Ireland. As part of the work, data and findings are being added to the project website on an ongoing basis.

From November 2016 to May 2017, the Pathways team provided technical support for the Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Healthcare. Initially, the team hosted three workshops with the Committee and then assisted the Committee with its remit ‘to devise cross-party agreement on a single long-term vision for health care and direction of health policy in Ireland’. On the 30 May 2017, the Committee published its final report

According the Committee’s chairperson, Roisin Shortall TD, ‘the formation of the Oireachtas Committee on the Future of Healthcare provided a unique and historic opportunity for TDs from across the political spectrum to come together to develop consensus on a long-term policy direction for Ireland’s healthcare system. Our task has been to consider how best to ensure that, in future, everyone has access to an affordable, universal, single-tier healthcare system, in which patients are treated promptly on the basis of need, rather than ability to pay’. .

An overview of the Committee’s work process and the report’s recommendations can be found in the Oireachtas News press release

Undergraduate Radiation Therapy Research at ESTRO 2017

Recent Radiation Therapy graduate, Kevin Dowling, presented the results of his undergraduate thesis at the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) in the best of proferred papers session, in Vienna, May 2017.

Staff Teaching Lecture at ESTRO 2017

Dr. Laure Marignol, pictured here, delivered an invited lecture entitled " Gene editing: how this technique can help study radiation responses" at the recent ESTRO conference in Vienna, Austria late May.

Postgraduate Career Seminar 2017

MSc. Molecular Medicine hosted a Postgraduate career seminar on 3rd May in TTMI attended by postgraduate students from across the School of Medicine.

Prof. Ross McManus (Director of MSc. in Molecular Medicine) moderated the evening while Dr. John McKeon (CEO, Allergy Standards) and Dr. Kristina Gegenbauer (Senior Scientist, Global Biotherapeutic Technologies, Pfizer) shared insight into their careers paths in scientific research and industry. Dr. Sinead Cullen (Recruitment Consultant, Life Science Recruitment) and Mr. Sean Gannon (Director, Career Advisory Service, Trinity) provided valuable advice on career planning and development.

The careers evening is held annually and all are welcome.

8th International Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor (MIF) Conference: 2-5 May 2017

Professor Seamas Donnelly (Professor of Clinical Medicine) and his research team hosted the 8th International MIF Conference in the Powerscourt Hotel, Wicklow from 2-5 May 2017. This conference is held biannually in order to showcase progress in the field of MIF by leading research teams worldwide. Speakers and delegates attended from a number of leading universities and institutes including: Yale Medical School, Weizmann Institute Israel, Cleveland Clinic, University of Lausanne, among others. Talks at the conference underlined the critical importance of MIF in the pathogenesis of a number of human inflammatory diseases and in cancer. Furthermore, research presented at the conference highlighted MIF’s potential as a novel drug target in conditions such as sepsis, rheumatoid arthritis, and cancer. Prof. Donnelly’s current, SFI-funded research addresses the role of the unique enzymatic activity of MIF in the pathogenesis of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa¬-induced infection in cystic fibrosis and in other inflammatory-based respiratory disorders.

Investigating yogurt and bone health in older Irish adults from the TUDA study

Recently a TUDA study, lead by Eamon Laird, was featured in several newspapers, including the New York Times and the Huffington Post. The study investigated the relationship between yogurt consumption and bone health. Read more»

Physiotherapy Student Pioneers Historic Agreement between TCDSU and Trinity College Dublin

Ireland’s first partnership agreement to improve the engagement of staff and students was signed in Trinity College Dublin this month. The pioneering Student Partnership Policy reinforces the joint commitment of the University and the TCD Students’ Union and Graduate Students’ Union to developing and supporting effective student partnership, engagement and representation. Dale Whelehan, a rising SS physiotherapy student and current Education Officer in the Union who was instrumental in its development said: “It is an important statement to the obligation and duty to further developing as a University community within which we all have a role and a function to perform and where we all have rights and responsibilities. Student engagement is a partnership between all stakeholders involved. Through this, students have the opportunity to engage at all levels of decision making in teaching, learning, assessment and the overall student experience. This thereby promotes an inclusive environment which empowers the student voice”.

Read more»

Trinity Week Event: Transgender Education in the Healthcare System

Trinity students were proud to host the first open discussion on transgender education in the healthcare system. With national policy currently negotiating gender recognition in the social setting, Trinity has always acted as a champion for Trans+ rights. The evening event included dialogue between Dr. Donal O'Shea, Andrew Martin IADTSU Welfare Officer, Trinity academic staff and students alike. There was a 'human library' where staff and student had the opportunity to become engaged in Trans+ issues and become educated in Trans 101. The evening wrapped up with a panel discussion on what changes are needed in the classroom, the hospital, and the nation to facilitate equal rights for Trans+ citizens.

Read more»

Operation Childlife (OCL)

Operation Childlife (OCL), the paediatric medical charity, specialising in complex surgical and interventional care in developing countries, with members from Trinity School of Medicine,, St James Hospital and OLHSC, signed a new Memorandum of Understanding agreement with the Angkor Hospital for Children, Siem Reap, Cambodia in March 2017 following a feasibility study by Dr Mark Ryan (TCD 1988), St James Hospital/TCD/OCL/OLHSC, and Dr Eamon Tierney of OCL/WGH, in November 2016. The first working visit to AHC will take place in 2017. This follows a re-signing of the MOU with Childrens Hospital # 2, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam following a decade of successful collaboration between the partners. The new agreement extends until 2020. 2017 will also see an MOU being signed with Childrens Hospital # 3 in the Binh Chanh district suburb of HCMC. This new 1100 bed facility, built in just over 2 years, will specialise in paediatric oncology care.

Trinity team win Irish Society of Nutrition & Metabolism (IrSPEN) Poster Prize

Trinity team at their IrSPEN prizewinning poster, Dublin, 28th March. Lucy Kelly (centre) SS Human Health & Disease, Niamh Aspell, Postgraduate in nutrition, (left) and Roisin Fitzgerald, visiting researcher in nutrition (right). Their work, with PI Associate Professor Maria O’Sullivan, showed that poor vitamin D status was associated with impaired muscle strength in a large population of older adults.

Clinical Team of the Year Award

The Paediatric Diabetes Service at the National Childrens Hospital Tallaght, a Trinity College Dublin teaching Hospital won the Clinical Team of the Year Award at the Irish Healthcare Centre Awards on March 10th 2017. The Paediatric Diabetes Service at the National Childrens Hospital Tallaght is a large service delivering care to over 350 children and adolescents with diabetes. It provides innovative teen pre transition clinics and an onsite joint transition clinic with Adult endocrinology for many years.The Service is very involved in research to improve the care for those with diabetes leading or participating in the key research developments for those with diabetes. It is the Irish centre involved in the international Hvidoere Diabetes Study Group which has provided extensive insight into the management of those with diabetes and the Irish Childhood National Diabetes Register was developed and is led by Trinity Researchers at Tallaght. The team was awarded for its innovative, holistic and multidisciplinary approach in dealing with children and young people with diabetes and their families. The Paediatric Diabetes team comprises: Professor Edna Roche (Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist), Dr Ciara McDonnell (Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist), Helen Fitzgerald (Senior Diabetes Nurse Specialist, ANPcand); Patricia Morris and Martina Comerford (Paediatric Diabetes Nurses);Grainne Mallon (Paediatric Diabetes Dietitian); Dr Claire Crowe (Senior Clinical psychologist), Aimee O'Neill ( Art Therapist ); Helen O'Byrne (Medical Social Worker) and Mona O'Brien (Administrator).

Dr. Eric Downer speaks at iWISH conference.

Dr. Downer delivered a keynote talk on research careers in science at the iWISH conference in the RDS, on 13th Feb . Dr. Downer, represented Trinity College alongside speakers including the President of DCU, the Head of Facebook Ireland, the Founder of Nuritas, the VP of Dell Ireland and the CEO of Vodafone.

iWish is an initiative to inspire, encourage and motivate young secondary school female students to pursue careers in STEM. iWish (inspiring women in STEM ) 2017 featured a conference and interactive exhibitions. The conference was attended by 2,000 students, consisting of workshops, daily keynotes and engaging talks by women/men who are at the top of their field in STEM. The showcase event combined talks and interaction with role models with interactive exhibition spaces where companies engage with the students directly with experiments and demonstrations of what they actually do.

New Radiation Oncology Journal

Michelle Leech, Associate Professor in Radiation Therapy has been named co-Editor in Chief of a new journal by the European Society of Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) called ‘Technical Innovations and Patient Support in Radiation Oncology’. The first edition was published in January 2017. More information can be found at  www.tipsro.science

Undergraduate Prizes Discipline of Radiation Therapy

Congratulations to Senior Sophister student Shane Horgan, winner of this year's Donal Hollywood prize for undergraduate research in the Discipline of Radiation Therapy, and to Jessica Mulfaul, winner of the St. Luke’s Prize and Olive Fleming medal.

Thrombosis Research Group

The thrombosis research group at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, led by Dr. Lucy Norris held an educational seminar on thrombosis in gynaecological cancers as part of the Institute of Obstetrics and Gynaecology study day. Prof Dominique Farge, MIG St Louis-Lariboisière Hospital, Paris outlined the guidelines for thrombosis prophylaxis in cancer which was followed by an interactive session presented by Dr. Feras Abu Saadeh (SJH). Further of the global CME initiative Women Thrombosis Cancer (WTC) can be found at https://www.wtccme.com