An Duais Mhór is a unique category – it’s for the overall prize winner and highest point scorer in all the categories. This is a singular prize for the best entry in the whole competition.

The judges are asked to mark entries relative to each other within the categories, but also to mark the categories relative to the other categories in terms of the quality of entries. This is so that we can extract the best entrants overall across the categories.

When the judging is complete, we take the top three entries and they are assessed by a smaller judging panel to find the best entry overall. This entry is rewarded with An Duais Mhór – the greatest possible achievement on the night.

This award is for the innovative use of information technology in a healthcare context to improve efficiencies and deliver better patient care. It includes systems that produce savings both in terms of personnel, revenue or patient time.

This award is for the best cross-border or international co-operation project of the year. It is for any project, scheme or program that utilises medical skills or facilities in other jurisdictions to benefit patients in Ireland or Northern Ireland. It is also for research and development projects where there are clear results and proven successes achieved in the cross-border or international project that would not have been realisable in Ireland alone.

This award is for the best webinar/meeting of the year. Medical meetings in person have been rarer since the pandemic, and the standard in production and presentation of webinars has increased across the healthcare arena. This award is for the company, person or institution that has produced the best/most educational meeting of 2023 whether online or in-person.

This award is to recognise excellence in healthcare management – particularly where it shows a demonstrable patient benefit. This award covers the entire spectrum of healthcare in Ireland – from hospitals to general practice to healthcare institutions of all kinds.

‘Management’ is there for the patient. It’s there to serve and help the medical team deliver results. The key thing for this award to demonstrate is a benefit to patient or doctors or both.

This award is for projects aimed at, or created/developed by, hospital doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other hospital-based healthcare professionals in a hospital setting. The winner will be a project that truly enhances the care a hospital gives and something that makes it demonstrably better than it might be – or competitors are - in terms of patient care. 

This award is to recognise an innovation in healthcare that increases efficiency in delivery, improves patient outcomes, reduces costs or procedures, or introduces a new and effective service, treatment, or system that improves patient care. Innovations in responding to the recent influx of Ukrainian refugees, or other recent challenges in healthcare (or other ‘crises’) will also be considered where healthcare staff have innovated to provide services relating to the crisis.  

Primary Care is at the frontline of patient services. This award is to recognise an innovation in primary healthcare that increases efficiency in delivery, improves patient outcomes, reduces costs or procedures, or introduces a new and effective service, treatment, or system that improves patient care in general practice. Innovations in responding to the recent influx of Ukrainian refugees, or other recent challenges in healthcare (or other ‘crises’) will also be considered where healthcare staff have innovated to provide services relating to the crisis. 

This award is for a device, product or service made or devised in Ireland that has improved medical services to patients, met a patient need, increased medical efficiency or made a profound difference in patient care or welfare.

This award is designed to highlight the fact that mental health has traditionally been stigmatised and underfunded in Ireland, while recognising efforts to combat this serious social issue.

The award recognises that there is still much to understand and address in the area of the causes, prevention and treatment of mental health illness, and makes a statement about the importance of facilitating best international practice in mental healthcare. 

This award is for a NCHD-led project or initiative that had a demonstrable impact on patient care, or our understanding of disease, or both.

This award for a nurse or midwife-led project recognises the effectiveness of initiatives with clearly defined results and outcomes, originated by an individual nurse or midwife or a team.

This award recognises innovation or excellence shown in an outpatient setting, for a project aimed at improving the quality of care delivered to this category of patients. This category was especially important in terms of maintaining services to patients during the pandemic, and as we emerge from COVID-19, there are many challenges to deliver the backlog of outpatient appointments and resume services to their previous level.

Nominees for this award are selected by the editorial team at Irish Medical Times and voted on by the judging panel. The award is for a ‘lifetime’ of achievement, or a scientific breakthrough or practice that has a profound influence on Irish medicine.

It particularly seeks to reward someone whose achievements were in the previous year, but often reflects a lifetime of medical service and excellence.

This award normally goes to Patient Groups – who are also eligible this year – but this year it is also extended to any group or person who is educating the public about medicine. There is a lot of misinformation being spread on social media – and there are people and groups battling these dangerous lies. We want to include their efforts into this category along with more traditional patient education fora. 

For projects that have been established or supported by the pharmaceutical industry, aimed at educating patients, carers and the general public.

This award recognises the work of patient organizations and their efforts to educate both the public and their own patients on issues related to their disease or condition.

This award is for the best patient service that is offered on an outpatient/day treatment basis. The award will be given to the best service that is provided by a clinic, surgery or hospital based on its patient numbers, the innovation and use of this service, the value to patients, and the ensuing quality-of-life. This is an award for the best patient outpatient service, or a patient service within primary care that is unique, efficient and offers patients a valuable improvement in their quality of life.

This award recognises the most important public health initiative of the year. There are many issues which threaten the general public health. This award is for an organisation, NGO or government body which has had an initiative that has had the most profound effect on public health.

The best research by an individual or group of NCHDs, PhD students in medicine or medicine-aligned science, or undergraduate medical students. It may be in the area of medicine research, or aimed at quality improvement, education or training, enhancing hospital procedures or improving communication between healthcare professionals.    

This award is for an initiative, system, project or practice that reduces the impact of a healthcare organisation on their environment.