Posted: 10 April 2008
UCD and Mount Carmel Hospital agree teaching and research partnership
Mount Carmel Hospital, Dublin is to become an affiliated hospital to UCD and collaborate in medical education and research. Details of the agreement were announced by the incoming chief executive of Mount Carmel Hospital, Catherine MacDaid and the head of UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science, Professor Bill Powderly.
Mount Carmel Hospital is Ireland’s largest stand-alone private maternity hospital. As an affiliated teaching hospital to UCD, it will now link in to the university’s obstetrics and gynaecology training complementing the existing teaching capacity at the National Maternity Hospital, Holles St and the Coombe Women & Infants University Hospital.
Pictured far right: Head of UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science, Prof Bill Powderly announces the afilliation of Mount Carmel Hospital to UCD
Dr Valerie Donnelly, Lead Clinician in Obstetrics at Mount Carmel Hospital, welcomed the academic linkup. Dr Donnelly said “I am delighted that Mount Carmel Hospital has been recognised as a university hospital for teaching and research and our new links with UCD and the public sector will undoubtedly benefit all concerned in medical research.”
Welcoming the agreement, Professor Powderly stressed the research opportunities afforded by the affiliation. “This agreement will enable us to build on the clinical research in the field. For example, we are both committed to investigating fetal adiposity in utero. Dr Bernard Stuart, UCD School of Medicine at the Coombe, has pioneered the measurement of fetal subcutaneous fat measurement using ultrasound during pregnancy. This new research will examine the relationship between maternal sugar levels during pregnancy and fetal adiposity in utero.”
Now, Dr. Nadine Farah will take up an appointment as the inaugural UCD Research Fellow in Clinical Obstetrics. Working with Dr Stuart, she will undertake clinical research on fetal adiposity in utero in the Ultrasound Departments of both Mount Carmel Hospital and the Coombe Women & Infants University Hospital.
Catherine MacDaid, CEO of Mount Carmel also welcomed the partnership, saying “Mount Carmel Hospital is now the largest stand-alone private maternity hospital in the country and as our service expands, it is important to ensure that the highest academic standards are maintained. The combined Hospitals have approximately ten thousand
births per annum and the research on both sites means that private healthcare will have an important part to play in contributing to the knowledge economy”.
As part of the new agreement, Professor Michael Turner, UCD Professor of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, has agreed to chair the Mount Carmel Committee on Clinical Governance.
