(25th November 2016) The Meath Foundation at Tallaght Hospital has announced high value research grants for 2017 worth up to €325,000 at its annual Research Symposium, which was held today in the Hospital’s Trinity Lecture Theatre. The Meath Foundation’s mission is to ‘Fund Healthcare Research, Education, Quality Improvement and Arts in Health at Tallaght Hospital.’
The Symposium was opened by Hospital Deputy CEO Lucy Nugent and was followed by a series of presentations by Tallaght Hospital staff who were recipients of research grants or educational funding recently from the Meath Foundation. These talks included Dr. Richard Walsh who spoke about a shared-care model for deep brain stimulation in Irish patients with Parkinson’s Disease, and Clinical Facilitator, Margaurita O’Brien who spoke about the implementation of the Early Warning System at the Hospital’s Emergency Department. The Keynote Address was given by Professor of Psychiatry and Consultant Psychiatrist at Tallaght Hospital, Brendan Kelly FRCPsych., FRCPI. Dr Kelly’s presentation was entitled, “Lost in Translation: From Neuroscience to Community Care”.
In addition, awards were presented, including the 2016 MSc. Fellowship Awards which were given to Mairead Holland Flynn (Advance Nurse Practitioner), Maire McCarthy (HR Business Partner) and Claire Broderick (Patient Flow Manager), as well as the Meath Hospital Medal for the student achieving the highest score in the clinical component of their final medical exams in both Clinical Medicine and Surgery. This latter award was presented to James De Boisanger and Caleb Powell. The J. A. Brian Keogh Research Medal was awarded to Dr. Sarah Moran.
Mairéad Shields, Chairman of the Meath Foundation at Tallaght Hospital, said; “This annual event is always an excellent opportunity to engage with new research that has been undertaken and reflect on the current state of medical science. All the speakers today have been illuminating and have given us new insights into their areas of expertise and what they have been able to learn following the research funding they have received. We are also very proud of the strong emphasis on future research in this event, and I am happy to see our grant allocations expand for 2017. We are very pleased, as part of our announcement for the 2017 Research Grants, to be announcing the ‘John Barragry Research Grant’ which is being established to honour Dr. John Barragry, Consultant Endocrinologist for his dedication to patient care in the Meath Hospital/Tallaght Hospital and his contribution to the establishment and development of Tallaght Hospital and The Meath Foundation. Best of luck to all applications, and I can’t wait to see what they achieve.”
Lucy Nugent, Deputy CEO of Tallaght Hospital, said; “Here at Tallaght Hospital we are very proud of our research capacity and our status as a teaching hospital. As a result events such as these are crucial to our academic endeavours. I have very much enjoyed today’s event and I congratulate everyone involved in the organisation. We are firm believers in the philosophy of “People Caring for People”, and collaborative initiatives such as these really put that philosophy into action for the research community.”
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About Tallaght Hospital
Tallaght Hospital is one of Ireland’s largest acute teaching hospitals, providing child-health, adult, psychiatric and age-related healthcare on one site. The Hospital has 495 adult beds and 67 paediatric beds, a staff of 2,600 people and an annual gross budget in excess of €0.25bn. The Hospital is a provider of local, regional and national specialities. It is a national urology centre, the second largest provider of dialysis services in the country and a regional orthopaedic trauma centre.
Tallaght Hospital is a major teaching hospital of Trinity College Dublin - specialising in the training and professional development of staff in nursing, health and social care, emergency medicine and surgery, amongst many others. The Hospital is part of the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group which serves a population of over 1.2 million across seven counties.
A new satellite centre is to be built at Tallaght Hospital as part of the New Children’s Hospital project and will be a key element of an integrated clinical network for paediatric services nationally.
The Hospital’s Emergency Departments catered for 45,551 Adult Attendances and 32,272 Paediatric Attendances in 2015. A further 206,169 patients were treated through the Hospital’s outpatient clinics in 2015. The Hospital’s operations are supported by 200 general practitioners in surrounding communities.
About the Meath Foundation
The Meath Hospital was founded in 1753 to provide health care for the poor of Dublin’s Liberties. Funded entirely by voluntary subscriptions and donations from prominent citizens of the day the hospital would attract some of Ireland’s most celebrated physicians and surgeons and become an internationally recognised centre for the advancement of medical science.
In 1998, along with the Adelaide and the National Children’s Hospital the Meath Hospital moved to the new Hospital at Tallaght.
Since 2002 The Foundation has awarded over 98 research grants. The total amount awarded to-date is almost €3.8 million.
