Faculty of Public Health Medicine Summer Scientific Meeting 2024

The Faculty of Public Health Medicine Summer Scientific Meeting took place at No. 6 Kildare Street over two days, 21 and 22 May 2024, bringing together over 200 attendees both in person and online. 

The first day of the event featured a session on "The Public Health Response to Humanitarian Conflict and War", chaired by Prof David Weakliam, Global Health Programme Director, HSE Adjunct Professor of Global Health, University College Dublin. This session included the following presentations: 

• We Need to Talk about Gaza - Harnessing the Power of Health Care Professionals in a Crisis - Dr Trish Scanlan, Interim Director, Department of Global Health, University College Dublin 

• Occupied Palestinian Territories: Delivering Humanitarian Medical Care in a War Zone - Dr Isabel Simpson, Executive Director, Médecins Sans Frontières 

• Representing Conflict, War and Peacebuilding in a Public Health Curriculum - Dr Mary B Codd, Associate Dean of Public Health, Associate Professor of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy & Sports Science 

Also on the first day, Ms Anne Doyle, Research Officer, Health Research Board, delivered an insightful talk on "Alcohol in Ireland, Use, Related Harms and Policy." 

On the second day, Dr Elizabeth Whittaker, Paediatric Infection and Immunity Consultant at St. Mary's Hospital in London and Senior Clinical Lecturer at Imperial College London, presented "Emerging Infections in Children" in a session chaired by Dr Abigail Collins, National Clinical Lead for Child Health / National Healthy Childhood Programme (NCHP). 

The two-day event also showcased short and long oral presentations on current hot topics in public health, data analysis, service developments, and health protection. These presentations were selected through a competitive scientific abstract submission process. Attendees also participated in the popular live poster tour, featuring 24 posters where authors presented their work and engaged with the audience's questions. 

Winners  

Long Oral Presentations:  

• Zachary Johnson Winner: Examination of Patients Presenting to the Emergency Department as “Apparently Drunk” - Michael Hanrahan 

• Second Prize: An Online Profile and Map Resource for Population-based Planning - Declan Mc Keown 

• Third Prize: Deduplication of CIDR: Automating Mundane and Repetitive Tasks - Catherine Timoney 

Short Oral Presentations:  

• First Prize:  A Decade of Population-Based Screening for Colorectal Cancer in Ireland: Lessons from Four Rounds of BowelScreen - Philippa White 

• Second Prize: An Evaluation of the Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine in Schools Programme 2023 - James Gilroy 

• Third Prize: Periconceptual Folic Acid Supplementation - Adherence to Current Guidelines in an Irish Population - Jessica McGirr 

Posters Winners:

• Laura Brennan HPV Catch Up Campaign in the Mid-West - Claire Sharkey 

• Factors Affecting COVID-19 Outcomes in Ireland: Findings from a National Database of 1,408,249 Cases Diagnosed Between 2020-2022 - Shiraz Syed 

• A Health Impact Assessment of an Urban Transport Strategy: Learnings from Practice - James O'Connell 

On the first day of this 2-day event, the Faculty also held a special ceremony to welcome 10 Fellows, 5 Members, and 3 CSCST recipients.