Athenry native Gerard Flaherty has become the first Irish person to lead the International Society of Travel Medicine.
Gerard Flaherty, who is professor of Travel Medicine and International Health at University of Galway, has become the 17th president of (ISTM ) at the society’s biennial conference in Basel, Switzerland.
ISTM which has its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, has had at its peak more than 4000 members in more than 100 countries, and has close partnerships with the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organisation, and multiple regional societies of travel medicine, tropical medicine, and infectious diseases.
Prof Flaherty has also recently been appointed as an adjunct professor in Travel Medicine at the renowned Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Thailand, and has also been admitted as a fellow by distinction of the Faculty of Travel Medicine at the prestigious Australasian College of Tropical Medicine, which has members in more than 30 countries.
Prof Flaherty was instrumental in establishing the National Institute for Prevention and Cardiovascular Health, which partners with University of Galway in delivering the successful Masters in Preventive Cardiology programme where he was programme director for eight years.
In recent years, having established the NIPC Fellowship programme, Prof Flaherty now acts as the NIPC’s honorary director of academic affairs and fellowship.
Prof Flaherty says the support he has received from colleagues at the University of Galway and the NIPC has empowered him to take on this most challenging volunteer role, allowing him to "positively influence global education, research and scholarship in travel medicine”.
