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The Ombudsman, Peter Tyndall, has highlighted issues such as long delays and failure to follow procedure in his investigation into how the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) handles complaints about its services, the results of which were published on Tuesday 18th July....

In a world first, an app has been certified as a contraceptive within the European Union, from a European health agency. The Stockholm-based company was established by Elina Berglund and Raoul Scherwitzl, a couple with a background in physics who also designed the...

Recent Irish-led research has found that a new drug, called THZ-1, can prevent the growth of triple negative breast cancer, currently one of the most difficult-to-treat forms of breast cancer. The findings were recently published in the journal Cancer Research by...

Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA) CEO, Oliver O’Connor expressed his dismay at the HSE’s delay in paying for medicines: “The issue is not about pricing. The maximum prices in Ireland are the average of 14 other EU countries. Other countries in Europe...

48 per cent of Irish people believe that the way to tackle the rising national obesity levels is through school-level education, according to a survey of 1,000 people throughout the country from protection specialist Royal London. The survey found a split in opinion...

Ireland to introduce opt-out organ donation A public consultation will take place before the end of the summer on the matter of the introduction of the opt-out system of consent for organ donation. This system means that consent will be deemed unless the person has,...

While more than 50 per cent of medical graduates are female, just 34 per cent of surgical trainees are women, and less than 7 per cent of consultant surgeons are women. In a report, produced by RCSI’s (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland) Working Group on Gender...

Latest figures have revealed that there were 51,321 admitted patients on trolleys or overcrowded wards between January and June of this year. These trolley/ward watch figures, compiled on a daily basis by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), confirm a...

Professor Vincent Maher, a Consultant Cardiologist from Tallaght Hospital, and a number of his colleagues will be participating in an inaugural 10-day cycle of the length and breadth of Ireland, in an effort to raise cholesterol awareness and funds for the...

There is much more to prescribing topical steroids than meets the eye and we ignore these other factors at our peril Dr Carol Cunningham Since the development of topical steroids in the 1940s, the management of skin disease has been revolutionised. Glucocorticoid or...

Commenting on the launch of the new Cancer strategy, Dermot Breen, Chairman of the Irish Cancer Society has said: “We look forward to the reality of having a cancer system that treats the person, not just the disease”. The number of cases of cancer in Ireland is...

Heart failure patient group leaders from 17 countries around the world participated in a two-day Heart Failure Patient Organisation Capacity Building Academy, organised by Croí and supported by Novartis, where they had the opportunity to network and discuss issues...

Huntington’s Disease (HD) has been around for years but the stigma surrounding it means that sufferers and their families are less inclined to speak openly about this incurable illness. In the nineteenth century, people with chorea were mistakenly believed to have...

Novartis presented 18 scientific abstracts at the 59th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Headache Society in early June of this year. Included was new analysis from a study highlighting the efficacy of AMG 334 (erenumab) in patients with 15 or more headache...