A Century of Service - Eoin O'Brien

Hugh Brady, President of University College Dublin
It is a great honour for me to be invited to contribute to A Century of
Service. I would like to take the opportunity to applaud the Board of
the City of Dublin Skin and Cancer Hospital for its foresight, vision
and ambition to create a world-leading Centre of Excellence in
dermatology research and training with the proceeds of the sale of
the Hospital buildings on Hume Street. I should also thank the Board
for choosing UCD as its partner in this endeavour. Working together
with other stakeholders we have a unique opportunity to integrate
dermatology research, training and clinical care in a manner that will have significant and
tangible benefits to the well-being of future generations of patients.
More than ever before high quality healthcare must be underpinned by a strong foundation of
education, research and innovation. Furthermore, the latter are increasingly intertwined.
Students of medicine, nursing and other health professions must not only graduate with the
appropriate level of knowledge and technical skill in their discipline and a capacity to work in
multidisciplinary teams but should also have a sense of the limits of current knowledge and an
appreciation for the importance of research in pushing back the frontiers of knowledge. There
has never been a more exciting time to be working in health research. Week by week researchers
in Ireland and around the world are making discoveries that shed light on the causation of both
common and rare diseases that point to new diagnostic approaches and new therapies; and that
question and advance the manner in which we configure and deliver our healthcare services.
Furthermore strong and multipronged collaborations between academia and pharmaceutical,
food and medical devices industries are ensuring that the discoveries made in the research lab
are converted into products and services that directly benefit our patients. The strategic
positioning of the new Charles Institute between UCD’s Health Sciences Centre and the Conway
Institute for Biomedical Research within the heart of UCD’s larger Science District, will ensure
that the Institute is not only embedded in UCD’s health education and research programmes
but also benefits from UCD’s wider network of academic and industry collaborations on the
Belfield campus and beyond.
I am confident that we can, given our collective ambition, resources and determination establish
an Institute that is a national flagship with global impact within a short period of time. I suggest
that our predecessors in Hume Street and UCD would expect and indeed deserve nothing less.
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