Dr Muiris Houston, Medical Correspondent with The Irish Times, was yesterday named Irish Medical Journalist of the Year for the second consecutive year.
He was presented with a specially commissioned sculpture and a cheque for €5,000 by the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, at an awards ceremony in the Mansion House, Dublin.
A panel of judges, under the chairmanship of Dr John Bowman, decided that he should receive the award for "outstanding, methodical, accessible and comprehensive coverage of Irish health and medicine".
Dr Houston was one of seven journalists from print, broadcast and electronic media honoured at the GlaxoSmithKline Irish Medical Media Awards.
Ms Sandra Flavin of Medicine Weekly, received the award for Young Irish Medical Journalist of the Year; Mr Fergal Bowers of irishhealth.com received an award for all-round expertise and development of his electronic website; Ms Helen O'Callaghan of the Irish Examiner received a print media award, and the award in the broadcast media category went to Richard Hannaford of RTÉ Radio One.
Dr Patrick Treacy of the Irish Medical Times won the award in the professional medical media category. Dr Garret FitzGerald received a special award for originality in medical journalism; he writes a column for Medicine Weekly.