HIQA has launched national guidelines on stakeholder engagement in health technology assessments (HTA) following a period of public consultation, which it says has the potential to improve the appraisal process by ensuring that relevant and important issues are considered.

Money worries, misunderstanding prescription instructions, and being unable to physically open the tablet bottles are just some of the reasons for non-adherence, writes Dr Muiris Houston.

Understanding the true age of your heart is key to curbing the lifetime risk of developing — and dying from — heart disease, according to new consensus recommendations on how best to stave off cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Meeting Report: Marie-Catherine Mousseau reports on the launch of a new  contraceptive option, which should help women consider long-acting reversible contraception as an alternative to the pill.

The IMO has warned the Government that its plans for Universal Health Insurance (UHI) risk tying Ireland into a ‘Dutch model’, even as that model is coming unstuck in its home country.

Advance care plans, rather than legally-binding advance care ‘directives’, should be adopted by patients concerned about setting out their wishes in relation to the type and extent of medical treatments they would or would not want to receive in anticipation of future incapacity.

A new expert report on the impact of water fluoridation schemes on population health has found the practice to be a “safe and effective public health measure”, with less tooth decay as well as lower cancer incidence in fluoridated areas.

  The National Cancer Screening Service (NCSS) is seeking expressions of interest from suitably qualified independent service providers for the provision of contingency colonoscopy services to support the delivery of BowelScreen — the National Bowel Screening Programme — should it be required in future.

  A renewed campaign to enforce compliance with the tobacco-free policy on the campus of Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital, introduced in July 2012, is currently being planned and will include the area being policed by hospital staff.

The consultant surgeon workforce in Ireland has “very significant shortfalls” in most surgical specialties, but especially in trauma and orthopaedic surgery, the National Clinical Programme in Surgery (NCPS) programme 2013 report has concluded.