UCD Beacon Hospital Academy to be a first in medical training

THE Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar, was on hand to launch the new UCD Beacon Hospital Academy last week.

The launch of the new centre marks a first in the education and training of students of medicine, nursing, physiotherapy and radiography through the combination of a university and a private hospital group.

UCD students will now be able to take part of their clinical training at Beacon Hospital with the first of 20 due to start in September.

Speaking at the launch the Minister said the UCD Beacon Hospital Academy was a great example of collaboration between sectors.

“This is a new partnership between one of our largest universities and the private hospital sector,

? he said.

“It will support students in medicine, nursing, physiotherapy and radiography and will make an important contribution to our health service. I understand it will have a strong focus on teamwork, leadership, management, and emerging technologies.

“All of these are key to Ireland’s health workforce, in an increasingly complex world.

“It also looks set to make an important contribution to the research and innovation agenda at a time when more and more patients are being treated using the most modern therapy techniques.

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The education and training at the UCD Beacon Academy will have a strong focus on interdisciplinary team work and rapidly emerging technologies. Through the UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School, UCD will also offer education programmes in healthcare management and leadership to Beacon Hospital.

UCD and Beacon Hospital will further partner on the development and deployment of technologies in connected health and personalised medicine.

In the context of connected health, the focus initially will be on remote care for patients following orthopaedic surgery and with chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.

This entails the use of monitoring devices to gather information on patients’ conditions and provide treatment while they are at home rather than in hospital. In personalised medicine, this will centre on molecular diagnostics in cancer, harnessing the expertise of UCD’s Systems Biology Ireland.

Speaking at the signing of the agreement establishing the UCD Beacon Hospital Academy, Professor Des Fitzgerald, Principal of the UCD College of Health Sciences, said:

“We need our health professionals – doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and radiographers – to have more rounded knowledge, especially in emerging technologies and therapies and to have the interdisciplinary skills required by a modern health service.

“Our students and trainees will be recognised as the agents of change in healthcare, capable of harnessing and absorbing emerging technologies, as they become role models in their professional fields, trained for interdisciplinary teamwork and global in outlook

“We believe that this partnership with Beacon Hospital will complement the training and research we already carry out in our Ireland East Hospital Group and other partner hospitals.

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Professor Mark Redmond, Chief of Staff at Beacon Hospital added:

“We are absolutely delighted to be part of this pioneering initiative to combine the best of both public and private sector skillsets and we look forward to many years of educating future leaders in healthcare.

“Beacon Hospital has over 200 consultants and over 630 staff providing healthcare and we believe our partnership with UCD will create an enhanced environment for treating patients.

“As a first step, the partnership will develop programmes for undergraduate and graduate medical students, initially for approximately 20 students in each of two clinical years of the UCD medical curriculum.

“Added to this are programmes for medical and nursing trainees, including interns and senior house officers as well as for other healthcare professionals, including physiotherapy and radiography.

“Specifically in nursing, these include postgraduate programmes in oncology, emergency and critical care and specialist training in targeted clinical areas, advanced health assessment, health informatics linked to connected health, and applied leadership and management education.

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