Located in the UCD Science District on the Belfield campus, the UCD Health Sciences Centre is home to the three constituent schools of the College of Health Sciences

• Medicine and Medical Science Nursing
• Midwifery and Health System
• Public Health, Physiotherapy and Performance Science

The Centre also encompasses the UCD Health Sciences Library and the Medical Bureau of Road Safety. The Health Sciences Centre is connected to both UCD Conway Institute for Biomolecular and Biomedical Research via the UCD Charles Institute of Dermatology.

Completed in 2007, this 16,000M² building is designed to support interdisciplinary education, research and social interaction whilst preserving a degree of identity for each discipline. Medicine, Nursing, Radiography and Physiotherapy groups are arranged in three wings around the central modern Health Sciences Library.

Lecture theatres, ranging in capacity from 40 to 320 seats, are situated on the ground floor, along with an open access computer suite, the IT services centre as well as a social space and restaurant facilities. Clinical skills teaching wards and laboratories are located on the first floor grouped around the central library atrium with small group class, tutorial, meeting rooms and office arranged around the periphery, a design which provides natural light and ventilation for nearly all areas.

Specialist Facilities.

Undergraduate teaching and graduate research laboratories are positioned on the second and third floors towards the centre of the building surrounded by a range of offices and meeting rooms. Clinical areas and specialist laboratories are available to students and staff across all schools and the UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science has responsibility for the following:

• clinical skills laboratory and simulated clinical environments
• anatomical dissection facility
• anatomy and pathology specimen library
• 120 seat computer aided learning suite
• multidisciplinary biomedical teaching laboratory
• over 1300m2 of wet and dry research spaces providing more than 200 research work stations
• Radiography suite with CR, DR and film screen acquisition, and associated dosimetry and printing capability
• multi-modality simulation suite with CT, MR, RNI and Ultrasound
• PACS laboratory and research space, LAN and web accessible

Throughout the building, the multidisciplinary approach to education and research is strengthened by the presence of cutting-edge audiovisual and computing equipment and services. The simulated wards and clinical skills areas contain ceiling mounted digital video systems that allow either student or educator led recording of patient interview, examination and investigation. This user-friendly system is ideal for both autonomous and directed student learning. In addition, the building has full wireless network coverage.

Diagnostic Imaging Suite.

The diagnostic imaging area, unique to Ireland, contains a networked Picture Archive and Communication System (PACS) that allows storage of, and access to, diagnostic images from all diagnostic and biological imaging modalities. It is designed to be compatible with similar systems used in hospitals, and has clear advantages for the education of all health care professionals and unlimited potential in research. A teleconference equipped lecture theatre permits simultaneous interactive lecture broadcast on campus and across several clinical education sites.