John Morgan (Mater Hospital), Dr Hugh Brady (President, UCD), Prof Noel Whelan (St Vincent’s) at the launch of Dublin Academic Health Care
UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science has signed an historic agreement with the Mater University Hospital and St Vincent’s University Hospital to form Ireland’s first academic medical centre, Dublin Academic Health Care (DAHC). Dublin Academic Health Care will be an independent entity with its own board under the chairmanship of Mr Thomas Lynch and will be operational in September 2007.
“This initiative will build on longstanding ties between the founding institutions to create a world class hub of clinical care, teaching and research. It will facilitate rapid and effective transfer of research ideas into clinical practice,” said Dr Hugh Brady. “DAHC will greatly enhance the capacity for leading bench-to-bedside medical research, and it will offer the very best environment to educate and train the health professionals and medical scientists of the future.”
The new entity, Dublin Academic Health Care, will pool the expertise and resources of the three organisations to improve integration of patient care, enhance medical training and advance collaboration between biomedical researchers and clinicians.
As the first of its kind in Ireland, DAHC 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. The DAHC can expect to look after 290,000 outpatients and over 100,000 inpatients. It has 300 consultants and over 1,400 beds available.
According to Thomas Lynch, Chairman, of DAHC, “international experience shows that where universities and hospitals combine and take a more holistic view of their core activities - patient treatment, education and research - they have the ability to make an enormous contribution to patient care.”
The two hospitals are already linked to UCD with many of the consultants undertaking clinical research and medical student training in addition to their patient care. More recently, the university has established clinical research centres with both the Mater and St Vincent’s hospitals to increase the volume of clinical research undertaken and to translate biomedical and clinical research into improved patient care*.
* Current research includes inflammatory & infectious disease (e.g. arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, chronic lung disease, hepatitis, HIV), cardiovascular diseases (pulmonary hypertension, COPD, heart failure, atherosclerosis, cystic fibrosis), cancers (e.g. breast, prostate, bladder and colorectal), psychiatric disorders and neurodegeneration (Alzheimer’s Disease, schizophrenia, stroke, etc), diabetes, obesity and metabolic disorders.
