The Irish Association of Clinical Scientists

The IACS was established in 2017 to act as a professional body and competent authority for Clinical Scientists. Clinical Scientists are health professionals operating in a number of clinical services in Ireland and the UK and provide laboratory analysis and advice for for specialist clinical services such as genetics, cancer and virology. In contrast to the UK, Clinical Scientists in Ireland did not have a local professional body prior to the establishment of the IACS. The IACS has been established to act as a voice for clinical scientists in Ireland. The IACS have identified the following as priority tasks:

The pursuit of state registration for clinical scientists,

The establishment of a structured training program for clinical scientists, and

Ensuring recognition of the distinct scope practice of clinical scientists in Ireland.

Realisation of these goals will provide a framework for improved patient care and greater capacity for the delivery of enhanced patient care. The rapid growth of large scale genomics projects such as the human genome project, the Cancer Genome Atlas and the 100,000 genomes project has resulted in a requirement for scientists with the ability to generate, analyse these data for clinical services.

Clinical Scientists have been delivering key clinical services in the areas of genomics and genetics in Ireland since 1996 and will continue to harness the power of these emerging technologies for clinical service delivery. In addition to it's goals of securing professional recognition for Irish Clinical Scientists, the IACS is also actively engaged in reviewing emerging technologies that may be of relevance for patient care. The IACS is currently engaged in drafting position papers in the following key technological areas

Next generation sequencing and genomic analysis

Clinical Bioinformatics

The Role of Data Analytics in Patient Care

Changing technologies for cytogenetic analysis

The above text is a decription of our aims and targets for the profession. If you would like to find out more about the patient groups we serve and clinical services we provide or would like to register for membership of the IACS please follow the links below. Our code of ethics can be found here.