It has been a good week for Irish medical research. Earlier a leading urologist reported on a screening programme for prostate cancer in men which identified a higher rate of the disease in the Republic than that found internationally.
And today the prestigious British Medical Journal publishes landmark research into domestic violence in the State which offers real hope for prevention.
Both pieces of research contain the clear message that the prevention of disease is both possible and necessary. While the jury is out on whether whole population screening for prostate cancer is cost effective in terms of lives saved, at the very least it offers the possibility of earlier, less invasive and less disabling treatment. And significantly, the Irish Cancer Society has backed a call for a National Screening Programme to mirror that which is available for breast cancer.
The Trinity College research on domestic violence, while upsetting in the high level of abuse it found, also contains a clear message of the value of prevention. It suggests that the simple intervention of doctors asking about a partners behaviour and previous episodes of relationship violence offers real hope of preventing the problem in the first place. The identification of key controlling behaviours by men which can predict the likelihood of domestic violence is a significant breakthrough of international import.
The researchers have also highlighted the need for a study into the long-term effects of partner abuse on the health of those affected, something which the Department of Health should fund as a priority.
There is also a need to extend the present research to document the prevalence of abuse by women of men, which studies in other countries suggest is also a real problem. And the possibility of domestic violence in same sex relationships cannot be ignored either.
The recently published National Health Strategy spoke of the need to look at population health in terms of preventive medical programmes. Its aspirations were a little vague; nor is the government's track record on delivering whole population medical screening a good one. We still await the expansion of breast screening to cover all women in the State.
The research breakthroughs announced this week are a timely reminder of the need for equal gender opportunities in national disease screening programmes. Prostate cancer must get equal billing with breast cancer and the relationship abuse of men must get the same attention as that which women so deservedly received with the publication of today's research.