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21 October 2025

Effectiveness, safety, and cost-effectiveness of pharmacist prescribing

The HRB conducted a systematic review to synthesise evidence on the effectiveness, safety, and cost-effectiveness of pharmacist prescribing. This systematic review provides policy-makers in the Department of Health with evidence related to the safety, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of pharmacist prescribing compared with other prescribing healthcare professionals across primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare settings. This evidence […]

17 October 2025

The effectiveness of public health interventions in reducing sunbed use and rates of skin cancer

The HRB conducted a systematic review to provide evidence on the effectiveness of public health interventions in reducing sunbed use and rates of skin cancer. This review was undertaken to inform policy-makers at the Department of Health in Ireland who are considering the development or revision of regulations relating to sunbed use. Skin cancer is […]

30 September 2025

Women’s health treatment interventions and outcomes: An evidence and gap map review

This publication can be read in conjunction with the following interactive gap maps Evidence and gap map 1: Interventions by health conditions: This map displays interventions as its rows and health conditions as its columns. It illustrates the available evidence on interventions that have been evaluated for all the selected health conditions. Evidence and gap […]

5 August 2025

Annual Report 2024 – Part One

The HRB Annual Report 2024, Part 1, can be read in conjunction which Part Two which is published later in 2025. This report contains the Chairperson and Chief Executive’s report; a snapshot of important HRB activities during 2024; key deliverables (in line with the HRB Strategy 2021-2025, Health Research – Making an Impact), case studies and […]

31 July 2025

Alcohol treatment demand in Ireland 2024

This is the annual, updated bulletin from the National Drug Treatment Reporting System (NDTRS) on cases of treated problem alcohol use in Ireland. This bulletin includes a detailed summary of 8,745 cases treated for alcohol as a main problem in 2024. Trends cover an eight-year period 2017 to 2024.

10 July 2025

Activities of Irish Psychiatric Units and Hospitals 2024

The 2024 report provides data presented nationally as well as by: – county – hospital type – individual psychiatric units/hospitals Data tables and individual bulletins for all HSE health regions can be found below:

2 July 2025

Drug use in Ireland 2023: Findings from the Healthy Ireland Survey

The Healthy Ireland Survey is an interviewer-administered survey of the health and health behaviours of people living in Ireland. It was first conducted in 2015 and is undertaken annually. It is commissioned by the Department of Health and carried out by Ipsos B&A. Each wave has included a sample of approximately 7,500 individuals, representative of […]

12 June 2025

Safety, cost and environmental impact of reprocessing high risk single-use medical devices: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Abstract: Aim: To estimate the safety, financial and environmental effects of reprocessing high risk SUMDs. Methods: Systematic review (PROSPERO ID: CRD42022365642) of primary trial and observational studies of human participants receiving reprocessed high risk SUMDs compared with first use of identical SUMDs. Reprocessing was defined as cleaning, disinfection, and sterilisation or related procedures, and function […]

11 June 2025

Overview of people engaging with disability services bulletin 2024

Bulletin from the National Ability Supports System (NASS) on data provided by disability service providers for people engaging with services through the HSE disability budget in 2024.

4 June 2025

Drugnet 91

Drugnet Ireland is the Health Research Board’s quarterly drug and alcohol research and policy newsletter. It provides summaries and analysis of recent publications and policy developments and well as overviews of particular issues relating to the drug and alcohol situation Ireland. Experts from the EUDA national focal point and from the HRB Evidence Centre contribute […]

28 May 2025

Drug treatment demand in Ireland 2024

This is the annual, updated bulletin from the National Drug Treatment Reporting System (NDTRS) on cases of treated problem drug use (excluding alcohol) in Ireland. This bulletin includes a detailed summary of 13,295 cases treated for drug use as a main problem in 2024. Trends cover an eight-year period 2017 to 2024.

Drug treatment 2024 bulletin cover-image

20 May 2025

Deaths among people who were homeless at time of death in Ireland, 2021

In this bulletin, data on deaths among people who were homeless and who died in 2021 are presented along with a summary of deaths that occurred from 2019 to 2021. The NDRDI collects data on all deaths among people who were homeless at the time of death, to improve understanding of premature mortality among people […]

Deaths among homeless people 2021 bulletin cover-image

8 May 2025

Effect of artificial community water fluoridation on dental health. An evidence review

This systematic review collates the evidence on the positive and negative effects of artificial community water fluoridation (CWF) on dental caries and fluorosis between 1948 and 2023. In addition, the review attempts to establish if there are dose response relationships between CWF levels (from 0.5ppm to 1.2ppm) and dental caries, or between CWF levels and […]

29 April 2025

Health-promoting interventions in prisons

The HRB conducted a review to determine which health-promoting interventions should be considered for implementation in Irish adult prisons in order to improve prisoners’ physical and mental well-being. This was an overview of reviews that assessed previously conducted systematic reviews of primary research studies. The review examined eight categories of interventions: Sports- and exercise-based interventions […]

16 April 2025

Prevalence of problematic opioid use in Ireland, 2020–2022

This report presents the findings from a study that aimed to estimate the prevalence of problematic opioid use in Ireland from 2020 to 2022 utilising a four-source capture-recapture methodology. The analysis incorporated three data sources from opioid substitution treatment (OST) records obtained from the Central Treatment List (CTL), which includes clinics, general practitioners (GPs), and […]

12 March 2025

Drugnet 90

Drugnet Ireland is the Health Research Board’s quarterly drug and alcohol research and policy newsletter. It provides summaries and analysis of recent publications and policy developments as well as overviews of particular issues relating to the drug and alcohol situation in Ireland. Experts from the EUDA national focal point and from the HRB Evidence Centre […]

11 March 2025

Health Research Board Annual Report 2023 – Part Two

This report can be read in conjunction which Part One of the report which contains the Chairperson and Chief Executive’s report; a snapshot of important HRB activities during 2023; key deliverables (in line with the HRB Strategy 2021-2025, Health Research – Making an Impact) and appendices. This publication contains corporate governance and financial statements approved […]

15 January 2025

Health Research in Action

The Health Research Board (HRB) has today released the latest edition of the annual Health Research in Action publication showcasing 19 success stories about wide-ranging health and social care research across four themes. The stories include projects about identifying bacteria linked to increased cancer-risk in the mouth, better care for recurrent miscarriage in Ireland, delivering […]

4 December 2024

Cancer Research Investment in Ireland (2019–2022)

This report presents an analysis of the data collected as part of a review of cancer research investments in cancer-related research projects, programmes and supporting infrastructure in Ireland from 2019 to 2022 using the United Kingdom (UK) Health Research Classification System (HRCS). The purpose of this report is to provide an analysis of the cancer […]

5 November 2024

Activities of Irish Psychiatric Units and Hospitals 2023

The 2023 report provides data presented nationally as well as by: – CHO – county – hospital type – individual psychiatric units/hospitals Tables and CHO bulletins can also be found below:

23 October 2024

Drugnet 89

Drugnet Ireland is the Health Research Board’s quarterly drug and alcohol research and policy newsletter. It provides summaries and analysis of recent publications and policy developments as well as overviews of particular issues relating to the drug and alcohol situation in Ireland. Experts from the EUDA national focal point and from the HRB Evidence Centre […]

25 September 2024

Drug poisoning deaths in Ireland in 2021

Data from the National Drug-Related Deaths Index (NDRDI) This NDRDI bulletin presents data on drug poisoning deaths in Ireland in 2021, with key trends for period 2012 to 2021. Drug poisoning deaths are deaths due to the toxic effects of one or more substances. Included in this bulletin are poisoning deaths due to illicit drugs […]

26 August 2024

Health Research Board Annual Report 2023 – Part One

Part One contents include: Chairperson and Chief Executive’s report; a snapshot of important HRB activities during 2023; key deliverables(in line with the HRB Strategy 2021-2025, Health research – making an impact) and Appendices. Part Two contains the corporate governance and financial statements. This will be published later in 2024 once those accounts are approved by […]

24 July 2024

Alcohol treatment demand in Ireland 2023

This is the annual, updated bulletin from the National Drug Treatment Reporting System (NDTRS) on cases of treated problem alcohol use in Ireland. This bulletin includes a detailed summary of 8,163 cases treated for alcohol as a main problem in 2023. Trends cover a seven-year period 2017 to 2023.

9 July 2024

Integrative review on place-based and other geographically defined responses to drug-related threats in communities

Place-based initiatives emerged originally in the field of health, guided by new ideas relating to the social determinants of health, the role of the socioecological context, implementation science, and the importance of community empowerment. Although there are considerable variations, it is possible to identify an underlying model which focuses on providing universal, structural interventions that […]

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