Health Protection Surveillance Centre
Contact person
Tel. + 353 (0) 1 876 5300
Description of the institute
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) is Ireland’s leading specialist centre for surveillance of communicable diseases and was established in 1998. HPSC is now part of the Health Service Executive (HSE), which has operational responsibility for the running of health services in Ireland. The population of Ireland is just over 5.2 million.
The remit of HPSC is to improve the health of the Irish population by the collation, interpretation and provision of the best possible information on infectious diseases. This is achieved through surveillance and independent advice, epidemiological investigation, research and training.
HPSC works in partnership with health service providers within Ireland and internationally to ensure that up to date information is available to contribute to the effective prevention and control of infectious diseases.
HPSC has approximately 100 staff, comprising of a multidisciplinary workforce of epidemiologists, public health doctors, consultant microbiologists, nurses, statisticians, business analysts, data scientists administrative and IT staff.
The main activities of HPSC are:
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Surveillance of infectious diseases
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Operational support – providing expert advice and responding to requests for support from regional Departments of Public Health and hospitals in the investigation and control of communicable diseases, including outbreak investigations
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Research - identifying and developing best practice in communicable diseases
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Teaching and training of professionals working in communicable disease control
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HPSC is the designated Competent Body for liaison with the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC)
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HPSC is the National Focal Point for WHO International Health Regulations 2005
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HPSC collaborates actively with ECDC and are involved in several ECDC activities and programmes.
Please visit https://www.hpsc.ie/ for more information on HPSC’s activities and outputs.
Training opportunities
EPIET fellows are based at HPSC in Dublin, work within multidisciplinary teams and are involved in the day-to-day activities of the organisation, including surveillance, outbreak investigations, research, teaching and scientific communications.
Surveillance activities can include implementing new systems, conducting surveillance data analysis or evaluating existing systems. EPIET fellows participate in outbreak investigations which may be at regional or national level. Opportunities to conduct applied epidemiological research are also available, often collaborating with a range of stakeholders.
EPIET fellows also participate in HPSC meeting such as the weekly scientific meeting, team meetings, the monthly Training and Research Forum, the R User group and also in health protection meetings involving HPSC and Departments of Public Health.
EPIET fellows have opportunities to teach within HPSC and at universities in Dublin during their training.
EPIET fellows are encouraged to collaborate with EUPHEM fellows based at the Irish EUPHEM training site and opportunities to conduct collaborative projects are available.
Participation in a short-term international assignment is encouraged.
EPIET fellows have opportunities to present their work at national and international conferences.
EPIET fellows may also have opportunities to avail of additional training opportunities within HPSC or Ireland.
Details on the work of recently graduated fellows hosted at HPSC are under About the Fellowship at https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/epiet-euphem
Training supervision
The designated supervisor and co-supervisor usually changes with each cohort. However, all trainees, regardless of the cohort, are supervised by medical or scientific staff working in the HSE. Project-specific supervisors are identified depending on the subject-matter expertise and statistical support is also available.
Language requirements
The EPIET fellow must be fluent in written and spoken English.
Training history
HPSC has been involved in the training of EU-track fellows since 2001 and MS-track fellows since 2012.
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EPIET fellows trained at HPSC: 13 EU-track and 6 MS-track (2001-2023)
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EPIET alumni working at HPSC: 8
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EUPHEM alumni working at HPSC: 1
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EPIET fellows currently in training: 2 (1 EU-track, 1 MS-track)