In 2025, the Irish Thoracic Society has continued to uphold its strong commitment to supporting our members and advancing respiratory health.   Anchored by our core pillars – Advocacy, Education, Research and Membership, we have built on our progress and strengthened our impact across all pillars. A new three-year strategy for 2026–2029 has also been developed and formally approved, ensuring this work will continue with renewed focus and direction.

Education and Training

The annual Virtual ILD MDT and Clinical Update held in February, co-hosted by the Irish Thoracic Society and the Irish Lung Fibrosis Association, once again proved to be a great success. This year’s programme featured the prestigious Fergus Goodbody Memorial Lecture, delivered by Dr Simon Walsh, Consultant Thoracic Radiologist and NIHR Clinician Scientist at Imperial College London, as he shared cutting-edge insights from the National Heart and Lung Institute with his lecture “Imaging biomarker development in fibrotic lung disease; applying deep learning to unsolved problems” I would like to express my sincere thanks to the ITS ILD Group for their dedication in delivering this important and much-valued event. My appreciation also goes to the expert panel for their insightful contributions to the MDT case discussions. Special congratulations to Dr Niamh Logan, recipient of the Terence Moran Memorial Award for Best Case Presentation.

The 2025 ITS Spring Meeting was delivered in partnership with the British Thoracic Society and the Ulster Thoracic Society, with a sold-out event in Belfast attracting over 200 respiratory professionals from across Ireland and the UK.  We were honoured to have Silke Ryan, President, European Respiratory Society, Marcus Kennedy, President, Irish Thoracic Society, Nick Maskell, President, British Thoracic Society and Paul Walker, former Chair, BTS & Marshall Riley, President Ulster Thoracic Society as Chairs  The success of this joint meeting underscores the importance of collaboration in strengthening respiratory medicine. 

We were pleased to continue our longstanding tradition of offering educational bursaries to support attendance at the ERS, BTS, and ATS International Conferences. With the generous support of A. Menarini Pharmaceuticals Ireland and GSK, these bursaries enable our members to engage with leading global experts, gain exposure to the latest research, and bring valuable insights back to the Irish respiratory community.

The ITS was proud to partner with the European Respiratory Society for the award-winning ERS Satellite 2025 event. This year’s programme focused on paediatric respiratory disease, asthma, COPD, and interstitial lung disease (ILD), attracting nearly 4,000 participants from 160 countries. We extend special thanks to Dr Nazia Chaudhuri, who represented the ITS as Co-Chair for the event, contributing to its outstanding success and global reach.

Our Inspire and Breathe podcast series, created and co-hosted by Dr Sandra Green and Dr Marissa O’Callaghan, have continued to go from strength to strength this year. We are grateful to members for their ongoing support of this initiative, which has been recognised nationally and internationally — including selection as a finalist at the Irish Healthcare Awards and a new collaboration with PulmPeeps in the United States and RCPI. We extend sincere thanks to AstraZeneca for extending their partnership in recognition of the podcasts’ success, and to all our guests whose insights and expertise have made each episode possible.

We were delighted to welcome two new ITS Education Officers, Dr Margaret Higgins and Dr Barry Harnedy, who will work with the Society over the next two years to further strengthen our educational initiatives.

Advocacy

The Irish Thoracic Society remains steadfast in its commitment to advocating for the highest standards of care and equitable access to diagnostic and treatment services for patients with respiratory disease. Throughout the year, the Society has actively engaged with a broad range of stakeholders to advance these goals and strengthen respiratory healthcare.

ITS marked World Lung Day on September 25th with a successful media campaign aimed at educating teenagers about the health impacts of vaping, achieving both local and national coverage. In addition, ITS co-organised a political lobbying event with ILFA to advocate for increased investment in respiratory health with representatives from across the respiratory community in attendance.

ITS president and members of ITS Tobacco Advisory Group attended the World Conference on Tobacco Control.

As a member of the Future of Registries Taskforce (FoRT), we were pleased to contribute to the publication of “Sustaining Patient Registries in Ireland.” The report sets out a roadmap for developing a sustainable and cost-efficient national registry model aimed at enhancing patient care and supporting healthcare research, policy, and practice. Active engagement is now underway with key stakeholders, including the Department of Health, to advance the report’s recommendations and ensure meaningful implementation.

ITS was pleased to attend the ERS Presidential Summit, a key highlight of which was the launch of the first joint ERS–WHO Europe report on chronic respiratory diseases. The report was unveiled at the ERS Presidential Summit on Prevention, held at the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin. This report shows that chronic respiratory diseases, which affect 81.7 million people in the WHO European Region, To change this, we must strengthen health systems by making care for chronic respiratory diseases a core part of broader strategies for addressing noncommunicable diseases. Prevention is key – this means tackling risks such as smoking, air pollution and unsafe working conditions. We also need to boost research and innovation, set measurable targets, and invest in data and science.

ITS were proud to become members of the Climate and Health Alliance in 2025. This important Alliance works to highlight the enormous public health harms that arise from climate change while emphasising the significant health benefits that can be unlocked through climate action. With this collaboration, we also become part of the Global Climate and Health Alliance that unites and mobilises the health community worldwide in climate action to protect and improve health for all.  

The ITS Rare Lung Disease Consortium Roundtable meeting took place in October with the purpose of bringing experts in specific rare lung diseases together in a national network while consolidating the working relationships between multiple healthcare institutions to deliver the highest standards of care to individuals with rare lung diseases in Ireland.

Research

We began the process of participating in the HRCI–HRB Joint Funding Scheme 2026, issuing a call to ITS members for research submissions. This unique initiative enables HRCI member charities to obtain matched funding for research that addresses the needs and priorities of the people they represent, through a competitive selection process. We are pleased to be supporting four ITS member applications that have successfully progressed to the next stage of evaluation.

With funding now in place, research is underway for the next edition of the Respiratory Health of the Nation report, which will be launched in 2026 and will once again provide valuable insights to inform policy and practice in respiratory care.

Membership Services

We have agreed and implemented a new partnership between ERS and ITS for the benefit of our members. This collaboration offers a range of advantages, including a substantial discount on ERS membership fees, access to the European Respiratory Journal (ERJ) and the ERS Monograph, as well as preferential access to ERS educational services, both online and at in-person events.

We were delighted to host ITS Members’ Evenings at both the American Thoracic Society Congress in San Francisco and the European Respiratory Society Congress in Amsterdam. These gatherings were highly enjoyable and well attended, providing valuable opportunities for members to connect, share experiences, and strengthen professional links within our international respiratory community.

Our regular ITS Member Newsletter continues to play an important role in keeping our community informed and connected. Through this platform, we share updates on activities, research developments, educational opportunities, and upcoming events. It also serves as a space to celebrate member achievements, highlight new initiatives, and promote collaboration across the respiratory community. We are encouraged by the consistently high level of engagement from our readers.

In line with our commitment to continually enhancing member engagement and services, we launched the new ITS Member Portal and Digital Membership Cards in 2025. These innovations provide members with easier access to resources and membership details in one centralised digital platform while also improving operational efficiency across the organisation.

The success of ITS and these initiatives is made possible through the invaluable support of our members, partner organisations, and collaborators across the respiratory health ecosystem. We are deeply grateful for this support and look forward to continued collaboration in 2026 and beyond.

Professor Marcus Kennedy
President, the Irish Thoracic Society