All-Island Medication Safety Conference 2026
"Medication Safety for all Generations, Practice and Innovation across the Island"
27 November 2026 · Belfast Met, Titanic Quarter, Belfast
A joint all-island meeting delivered by the Irish Medication Safety Network (IMSN) and the Transforming Medication Safety Northern Ireland programme (Northern Ireland Medication Safety Collaborative), supported by the Department of Health Northern Ireland, An Roinn Sláinte / Department of Health (Ireland), the HSE and Health and Social Care NI.
About the conference
Medication error remains one of the largest single sources of avoidable harm in healthcare worldwide. This one-day conference brings together the medication-safety community from both jurisdictions on the island of Ireland to share practice, data and innovation across the full patient lifespan — from neonatal and paediatric prescribing through adult acute care to the complex polypharmacy of frailty and older age.
The 2026 theme, "Medication Safety for all Generations, Practice and Innovation across the Island", frames the day around two ideas: that medication safety challenges differ meaningfully by age group and care setting, and that improvement now depends as much on systems and technology as on individual vigilance.
Expected themes
- Medication safety across the lifespan — neonatal, paediatric, adult and older-adult prescribing
- High-risk medicines, look-alike/sound-alike products and error-prevention strategies
- Polypharmacy, deprescribing and medicines optimisation in frailty
- Electronic prescribing, closed-loop administration and clinical decision support
- Incident reporting, learning systems and a just safety culture
- Medicines reconciliation at transitions of care
- Patient and carer empowerment — "Know, Check, Ask" and the WHO 5 Moments for Medication Safety
- Quality-improvement projects and collaborative learning from services North and South
Call for Abstracts
The conference is open for abstract submissions from health and social care professionals across the island of Ireland, with a submission deadline of 11 September 2026. Abstracts describing medication-safety improvement projects, audits, research and innovations are welcomed for oral and poster presentation — this is one of the best venues on the island to present practical medication-safety work to peers who can adopt it.
- Abstract deadline: 11 September 2026
- Conference date: 27 November 2026
Who should attend
Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, medication-safety officers, physicians, nurses and midwives, quality-and-safety and clinical-governance leads, risk managers, digital-health and ePrescribing teams, and academics working in medication safety across Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Venue
Belfast Metropolitan College, Titanic Quarter — a modern, accessible campus in Belfast's regenerated Titanic Quarter, close to city-centre transport links and hotels.
Registration
Registration and abstract submission are handled by the organisers through the Irish Medication Safety Network. Open to health care professionals working in Health and Social Care across the island of Ireland.
