This publication is the 15th issue of R&D Today – the biannual newsletter of the Health and Social Care Research and Development Division (HC R&D). It profiles research in HSC Trusts, research governance permissions processes and noticeable achievements in research.

This edition of Transmit has an extensive overview of tuberculosis (TB) in Northern Ireland in 2010. It provides a background to the disease and a summary of the TB situation globally and in the UK, including Northern Ireland. It also highlights the geographical trends, such as country or area of TB acquisition, outlines the situation with regard to new entrants in Northern Ireland and introduces the WHO’s Stop TB Strategy, aimed at dramatically reducing TB worldwide by 2015.

This quantitative study was commissioned by the DHSSPS as part of their smoke-free monitoring and evaluation strategy after the introduction of smoke-free legislation in Northern Ireland in April 2007.

The research was undertaken to determine the impact of smoke-free legislation on non-smoking adults who live with a smoker.

Using research carried out both before and after the introduction of smoke-free legislation, this study details for the first time the attitudes and knowledge of non-smoking adults living with smokers in Northern Ireland, in relation to second-hand smoke.

An all-island action plan on suicide prevention was developed in 2007 in conjunction with the DHSSPS in Northern Ireland and the National Office for Suicide Prevention (NOSP) in the Republic. The plan contains a rolling programme of actions designed to take forward issues of mutual interest.

The PHA, supported by the Institute of Public Health in Ireland (IPH) and other agencies and individuals, has completed a health impact assessment (HIA) on the Cardiovascular Service Framework (CVSFW) for Northern Ireland.

The CVSFW is the first in a series of service frameworks developed in Northern Ireland to guide HSC provision from prevention and health improvement over early intervention in communities and general practice into hospital and other institutional settings towards rehabilitation, palliative care and end of life.

The draft Commissioning Plan was approved by the boards of the HSCB and PHA on Thursday 30 June 2011 for onward transmission to the DHSSPS for Ministerial consideration.

Further refinement of the draft plan will take place in July and early August with a view to bringing a final draft plan to the August board meetings of the HSCB and PHA.

The Academy's review, 'A new pathway for the regulation and governance of health research' was published in January 2011. The report was prepared by a working group, chaired by Professor Sir Michael Rawlins FMedSci, convened in response to an invitation from Government to review the regulation and governance of UK health research involving human participants, their tissue or their data.

This report refers to the period 2009/2010.

During the reporting period, eligible women in Northern Ireland, aged 20-64, were invited for cervical screening every five years. The aim of the programme is to detect abnormalities in cervical cells that could, if left untreated, develop into cancer.

The screening programme consists of three main operational elements:

• Call and recall
• Cervical cytology
• Colposcopy