Doctor Awards 2004: A UCD research scientist working at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, has been named Ireland's "Doctor of The Year" for her work on a bacteria linked with stomach cancer and the development of peptic ulcers.
Dr Margaret Clyne studied how helicbacter pylori interacts with mucus gels lining the stomach. The groundbreaking research is the first step in understanding how the stomach environment might be manipulated to promote the growth of 'good' bacteria. This breakthrough could also help combat disease in the respiratory and urinary systems.
"There has been very little research on the interaction of bacteria with the complex mucus gel that overlies what we call epithelial surfaces," Dr Clyne said. Lack of focus in this area may have represented a substantial oversight in protecting human health, she added.
She and her team have learnt how h. pylori establishes infection and interacts with the mucus gel lining the stomach.
She was presented with a specially commissioned award and an educational bursary, while 15 other doctors from various other specialist areas of medicine won category awards at a ceremony in Dublin at the weekend.
The award for the best paper published in the Irish Journal of Medical Science went to Prof Ivan Perry of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College Cork and the National Suicide Research Foundation. Along with Dr Paul Corcoran and others, he published research into parasuicide and suicide in the south west region.
He found parasuicide (deliberate self-harm) was largely a city phenomenon confined to young people of both sexes, whereas suicide was a significant problem for city and county men and especially young adult males.
A special lifetime achievement award was presented to retired cardiologist Prof Risteard Mulcahy of St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin, a major contributor to the reduction of coronary heart disease here. A founding member of the Irish Cardiac Society, he helped establish the Irish Heart Foundation in 1996. Prof Mulcahy and his colleagues were the first to demonstrate that smoking cessation was associated with a halving of death rates from cardiac disease.