Very High Standard at Registrar's Prize in Neuroscience meeting
Registrar's Prize
At the Registrar's Prize in Neuroscience on Friday, November 21st, 2008, the Director of the meeting, Dr. Dominick McCabe noted the very high quality of presentations heard at the meeting and encouraged researchers to publish their work. There was an unprecedented number of submissions in both the Research and Case Report sections from which 11 research abstracts and 15 case reports were selected for presentation. Top
L to R. Dr. Paul Crowley, Ms. Liz Murphy, Dr. Norman Delanty, Dr. Catherine Keohane
L to R. Mr. Brian Tonge, Dr. Sinead Murphy, Dr. John McHugh, Dr. Janice Redmond, Dr. Raymond Murphy
High quality presentations
Professor Michael Farrell , chairperson of the judging panel, declared the standard of presentation in both categories to be equal to or exceeding equivalent presentations at international meetings. Professor Farrell stated that this illustrated the very high level of research being conducted in Irish centres, noting also that much can be learned from the interesting case reports presented. He went on to compliment the dedication of the mentors who in addition to having very high clinical and academic workloads, also made time to supervise the work undertaken by registrars and specialist registrars.
Professor Farrell thanked the Health Research Board, Science Foundation Ireland and disease specific organisations for funding this research. The collaboration evident in the work presented enhanced the quality of research significantly. Top
L to R.
Dr. Timothy Counihan, Professor Orla Hardiman, Dr. Ged O'Connor, Dr. Susan Byrne, Dr. Julie Phukan, Ms. Liz Murphy, Professor Michael Farrell, Dr. Dominick McCabe
Prizewinners
The winner of the Research category was
- Dr. Julie Phukan presenting 'A Population Based Survey of Cognitive Decline in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)'
Julie Phukan, MB MRCPI, Laura Gallagher BA, Bernie Corr, Niall P Pender PhD, Orla Hardiman MD FRCPI
Joint winners in the Interesting Case Report category were:
- Dr. Ged O'Conner presenting 'Extending the phenotype of Alagille syndrome'
Ged O’ Connor MRCPI, Dominick J. H. McCabe PhD FRCPI, Michael Guiney FRCPI, Janice M. T. Redmond MD, FRCPI, Colin P. Doherty MD, MRCPI
- Dr. Susan Byrne presenting 'Childhood Absence Seizures and GLUT 1 deficiency'.
Susan Byrne MB, MRCPI, Jacinta Kearns, Joe McMenamin MD, FRCPI, FRCPCH, David Webb MD, FRCPI, FRCPCH Top
L to R. Dr. Deirdre O'Rourke, Dr. Sinead Murphy, Dr. John McHugh and Mr. Brian Tonge
L to R. Mr. Brian Tonge, Professor Tim Lynch, Dr. Joan Moroney and Dr. Peter Kelly
10 year anniversary
Dr. Catherine Keohane, Dean of the Institute, thanked Dr. McCabe for directing a most successful meeting and noted that this was the 10th anniversary of the organisation becoming the Irish Institute of Clinical Neuroscience.
Dr. Keohane stated that it was important to remember the origins of the IICN in 1984 as the Richmond Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery, noting particularly the enormous contribution of Dr. Hugh Staunton in the early days, together with the other founding members, Mr. John Lanigan, Dr. James Toland, Mr. Alex Pate, Dr. Patrick Carey, Dr. Sean Murphy and Prof. John Phillips. The organisation evolved to the Irish Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery in 1998 welcoming membership from all neuroscience centres, and was launched by President Mary McAleese.
Following on from the establishment of the Luke Kelly Memorial Fund the Irish Brain Research Foundation was formed which raised funds for research in neuroscience as a sister organisation to the Institute for a number of years until it's closure in 2006. Dr. Keohane thanked those who had served on the Board of the IBRF, especially Ms. Mary Quinn, Dr. Chris Horn and Mr. Jay Murray.
In 2003, recognising the involvement of many other areas in neuroscience in the Institute, neuropathology, neurophysiology, paediatric neurology etc. the name of the organisation was changed to the Irish Institute of Clinical Neuroscience.
Currently the IICN, with the support of unconditional grants from sponsoring companies, invites applications for two research grants and for an annual travel grant. The Institute is grateful for this support for its research and education objectives to Merck Serono, UCB PHarma and Sanofi Aventis.
The Institute runs educational meetings including the annual Irish Neurological Association Meeting and the Neurology Update Meeting, the Irish Neuromuscular Meeting. Dr. Keohane thanked all those involved in running meetings on behalf of the Institute.
Dr. Keohane also thanked Dr. Sean Connolly for his development of the Institute website and ongoing commitment in his role as editor, and Ms. Colette Fitzpatrick for maintaining the site.
Other activities supported by the Institute include the MRCP Course in Neurology and Specialist Registrar Training under the direction of the National Specialty Directors.
Recent very exciting developments in neuroscience in Ireland include the development of the Dublin Brain Bank directed by Prof. Farrell, expansion of consultant neurology posts, the opening of the Dublin Neurological Institute at Eccles Street and plans to develop a strategy to manage CNS neoplasms.
The Dean closed by encouraging all members to become involved in the Institute, to encourage others to become members and to use the IICN website as a source of information and to publicise those developments in their own centres. Top
L to R. Dr. Michael Marnane, Dr. Tania Jawad, Dr. Simon Cronin, Dr. Jennifer Dineen, Dr. Aine Merwick, Mr. Brian Tonge
