New frontiers in medicine discussed at the RCPI Conference

Five innovators in medical practice and education spoke at the St Luke’s Symposium today, as part of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland’s Conference.

The session titled “New Frontiers in Medical Practice and Education” gathered professionals working across different domains of medicine.   

Prof Diarmuid O’Donovan (director of National Health Improvement, HSE Public Health) gave an update on the rollout of a new global health curriculum. Global health is the area of study, research, and practice that prioritises health equity for all people worldwide.

The curriculum is currently being integrated with specialty training programmes offered by the postgraduate medical training bodies. According to Prof O’Donovan, a new global health e-module has been designed and will soon be launched.

Ms Isabel Simpson, executive director of Médecins Sans Frontières/ Doctors Without Borders Ireland, presented on that organisation’s responses to conflict in Sudan and Palestine.

“Women and children are bearing the brunt of the full-blown war on people raging across Sudan, and particularly throughout Darfur,” said Ms Simpson.

Her presentation showed maternal and neonatal mortality on the rise, with maternal deaths increased more than 50% across two Médecins Sans Frontières-supported maternity services. Parties in the war are blocking or restricting access to lifesaving aid.

In Palestine, Ms Simpson said, it took more than six months to get permission to establish a second Médecins Sans Frontières field hospital in the Gaza Strip.

“Up to 18 September 2024, 504 attacks were recorded on healthcare sites, and nearly 1100 health workers killed,” she said. “In Gaza, the dismantling of the health system by Israeli forces is leaving people without healthcare access. Our work is often unable to meet the needs of what we’re confronted. This is healthcare in paralysis.”

In her presentation, Dr Emily Buckley, a RCPI Trainee on the Higher Specialist Training in Geriatric Medicine programme, discussed the benefits of simulation-based training.

“Simulation has been suggested by studies to train doctors in technical and non-technical skills – from non-technical skills such as communication skills, to technical skills such as how to manage an acute stroke,” she said.

Dr Buckley shared findings from a pilot study she created, asking hospital doctors about the potential of simulation-based training. As a next step for the study, she is identifying gerontological competencies to prioritise. 

Dr Blánaid Hayes, a retired consultant occupational physician, delivered a presentation on workplace wellbeing. “It’s only in the last decade we’ve become aware of its importance to physicians,” she said.

In her presentation, Dr Hayes referenced recent research papers measuring doctors’ wellbeing. 21% of respondents to a survey admitted to experiencing burnout. Another paper examined ‘coping’ amongst doctors as a set of cognitive and behavioural strategies dealing with challenges in life and in work.

“It’s the organisational interventions that have the most impact,” said Dr Hayes. “When an organisation actively promotes wellbeing.”

Finally, a presentation by Associate Professor Catherine Quinlan, a paediatric nephrologist at the Royal Children’s Hospital Australia, encouraged embracing genetics in patient care. She spent the last 10 years building an evidence base for utilising geonomics in nephrology.

A leading researcher for the Kidney Flagship, an initiative committed to end kidney failure in childhood, Associate Professor Quinlan secured federal funding for genomic sequencing for adults and children across Australia.

She and her colleagues designed a series of explainers to assist nephrologists in reading genomic reports, and identifying patients who would benefit from geonomics.

In her presentation, she shared some of those new resources they have developed, including an interactive learning platform, and a new ‘classification’ tool for nephrologists to identify patients as requiring a genetics test.

“My mantra is: it needs to be as easy to order a genetics test as it is to order an MRI,” she said.