Dublin Academic Medical Centre
Dublin Academic Medical Centre (DAMC) is Ireland’s first patient-focused academic healthcare centre incorporating Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group, and the UCD School of Medicine & Medical Science.
Established in 2007, the DAMC is pursuing the immediate goals of integrating research & education activities across the three institutions and creating joint clinical departments across both hospital sites. The DAMC is led by Chief Academic Officer, Professor William G. Powderly who chairs the DAMC Medical Executive.Our Mission
The mission of Dublin Academic Medical Centre is to improve the health of patients and the general population, and provide excellent training to healthcare professionals, by purposefully linking treatment, teaching and research capability.
Strategic Objectives
Our hospitals have distinguished traditions in healthcare delivery to their local communities, the Dublin region and throughout Ireland.
UCD is the largest educator of medicine, nursing, radiography and physiotherapy students in Ireland.
We will consistently pursue excellence and innovation in the education of health professionals; the discovery, dissemination and utilization of new knowledge; the provision of highest quality patient care; and the promotion of health.
The DAMC aims to:
- Be nationally recognized as the medical centre that best prepares healthcare professionals for their respective roles.
- Be a healthcare provider of choice by delivering the highest levels of patient satisfaction and cost-effective care.
- Be nationally recognized for having the highest levels of patient safety
- Be nationally recognized for consistently integrating best practices and assimilating the most current medical knowledge into the care we provide.
- Be nationally recognized as leaders in selected areas of biomedical and translational research and internationally recognized in at least one area.
- Make unique and valuable contributions to the understanding of disease and the promotion of health through research in fundamental biomedical, clinical and public health sciences.
- Develop strong linkages with State policy makers and agencies to become a critical resource in the formation of health policy.
Values & Ethos
The values and ethos of the founding institutions are integral to Dublin Academic Medical Centre. This ensures that in fulfilling its functions, Dublin Academic Medical Centre is guided by the values of the innate dignity of the person, compassion, justice, quality, accountability, equity, advocacy and academic freedom.
Dublin Academic Medical Centre is established on the principles of mutual respect, empathy, partnership and co-operation. It operates in a manner which is sensitive to the needs of the local communities of each of the hospitals, as well as meeting regional and national healthcare needs.
Dublin Academic Medical Centre facilitates and promotes a caring and healing environment for patients in which the essential contribution of each member of staff is valued.
Scale of Operations
In time, the DAMC will enable the coordinated deployment of resources and the development of shared services across the three institutions to improve access and quality of patient care in Ireland. Through its two major hospitals, the combined Dublin Academic Medical Centre entity:
- Serves the healthcare needs of approx 1 million Dubliners
- Provides two major Dublin centres of Accident & Emergency Medicine
- Operates with over 350 consultant medical staff and a similar number of non-consultant hospital doctors.
- Cares for over 300,000 out-patient ambulatory and 100,000 in-patient acute case per annum in all major specialties with over 1,400 in-patient hospital beds.
- Provides national referral specialists in arthritis, cardiothoracic surgery (including transplantation), lung disease (including cystic fibrosis), liver disease (including transplantation) and spinal injuries.
- Delivers regional centres for ophthalmology, dermatology and oncology.
- Provides two regional centres for the National Breast Screening Programme and has pre-eminent clinical centres for infectious diseases (including Hepatitis C) and diabetes and endocrinology.
- Has Ireland’s largest clinical research centre, operating at both hospital sites under a single governance structure and is an active participant in both the Dublin Centre for Clinical Research and Molecular Medicine Ireland/Irish Clinical Research Infrastructure Network.
- Offers focal points for the coordination of North and South Dublin healthcare services delivered in the community and at smaller specialist clinical facilities.
Progress To Date
Dublin Academic Medical Centre (DAMC) is Ireland’s first patient-focused academic healthcare centre, incorporating Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, St. Vincent’s Healthcare Group, and University College Dublin School of Medicine & Medical Science.
The academic medical centre was established in July 2007 with the signing of a tripartite memorandum of understanding between the founding institutions. DAMC became operational in September 2007 with the immediate goals of integrating research & education activities across the three institutions and creating joint clinical departments across both hospital sites.
In October 2008, the DAMC appointed two consultant staff members, Professor Douglas Veale (Director of Translational Research) and Dr Dermot Power (Director of Postgraduate Education) to two important leadership positions.
In response to the Irish government’s National Cancer Control Programme, DAMC has developed a trans-institutional cancer strategy to deliver the surgical oncology service needs of approximately one million Dubliners through two designated regional centres of excellence. DAMC St Vincent’s University Hospital has been selected as the site for the National Surgical Centre for Pancreatic Cancer.
Governance
DAMC is governed by a Board of Directors under the Chairmanship of Mr Thomas Lynch with representation from each of the three parent institutions.
In October 2007, the Board appointed Professor William Powderly (Consultant in Infectious Disease, Dean of Medicine & Head of the UCD School of Medicine & Medical Science) as Chief Academic Officer.
Local Executive Management Committees of the UCD School of Medicine, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital and St Vincent’s Healthcare Group report to a joint DAMC Medical Executive Committee which is chaired by Professor Powderly. Medical policy development, healthcare strategies and all new hospital consultant appointments are advanced in a cross-institutional basis exploiting economies of scale and establishing a critical mass to allow the development of subspecialty expertise.
