Open Access Research Publishing: Open Access Research Awards 2024

The HSE Library Open Access Awards celebrated their 10th anniversary this year, with the annual prize-giving on December 5th in Dr Steevens’ Hospital. Since their inauguration in 2014, the awards have become a fixture on the research calendar.

This year the awards were presented by the Chief Clinical Officer, Dr Colm Henry. He thanked the judges and organisers for their efforts, and reminisced about the changes in research since his days as a student leafing through Index Medicus.

External judge Prof. Jonathan Drennan praised the high quality of the research carried out in this year’s awards, noting that they were clearly patient-centred and innovative. He reflected on how healthcare is becoming increasingly complex in both its delivery and its research, and increasingly inter-disciplinary.

Prof. Drennan singled out the research of each of the category winners for praise, noting of the research of overall winner Sarah Nicholson that its home-based care model re-imagined traditional clinical pathways, paving the way for new approaches.

He added that no matter how specific the individual studies were, “they contributed to a broader vision of the healthcare that we’re trying to achieve”.

Acute Care and Hospitals: Ahmed Lutfi Cost analysis of care and blood transfusions in patients with Major Obstetric Haemorrhage in Ireland.

Community and Social Care: Kieran Walsh and Helen O’Donnell Duration of protective immunity following COVID‐19 vaccination of individuals with underlying health conditions: A rapid review

Mental Health and Disabilities: Diarmuid Ó Coimín Dying, death and bereavement: developing a national survey of bereaved relatives

Integrated Services: Gertrude Doddy Alarm therapy for nocturnal enuresis in children: a literature review

Special Innovation Award: Aileen Callanan Opportunistic atrial fibrillation screening in primary care in Ireland: results of a pilot screening programme

Overall Winner: Sarah Nicholson Outpatient elective induction of labour at 39 weeks’ gestation (HOME INDUCTION): an open-label, randomised, controlled, phase III, non-inferiority trial