Primary Care Network
Consistent with good public health policy to prioritise health promotion, disease prevention and care in the community, the UCD School of Medicine & Medical Science has developed an extensive network of primary care physicians who actively participate in our teaching and research programmes. Our highly innovative General Practice group administers a primary care facility (Coombe Healthcare Centre) which provides front line healthcare services to approximately 4,500 registered patients within the Dolphin’s Barn area of Dublin’s south inner city. This 6-GP facility provides undergraduate student placement and supports significant research activity in strategically important chronic disease areas including infectious disease (Hepatitis C, HIV) and psychiatry (schizophrenia). The General Practice group has developed a GP clinical teaching network comprising more than 140 GP’s around the country which provides clinical placement opportunities throughout our medicine curricula and has enabled the School to offer early patient contact within our curriculum.
Our academic staff have developed a number of research-based primary care networks which provide an essential interface for community-based clinical research. For example, the North Dublin Stroke Study is a collaborative research study involving doctors at the Mater, Beaumont, and Connolly Hospitals, North Dublin GPs, the Irish College of General Practitioners, and the UCD School of Medicine & Medical Science. Over 550 stroke patients have volunteered to provide medical and blood test information so that the research team can best identify who is at high risk for stroke. This initiative provides better clinical care service, is fuelling translational research investigations and is informing the National Stroke Strategy.
Our General Practice group delivers a taught masters programme in general practice and a national professional training programme in emergency medical technology for paramedics. It leads a number of important externally funded research and training programmes including a major national initiative, MERIT which provides professional training for medical emergency responders. The emergency medicine technology training is delivered through the Centre for Immediate Care Services (CICS) which has developed national leadership in emergency medical sciences/pre-hospital emergency care and the interface between the general practice, the ambulance services and acute hospital sector.
