Funding Awarded

MinDful: Music aNd Dance For Older adULts: The Feasibility of an Arts-Based Health Intervention for Health and Wellbeing

Ireland has an ageing population. Many older adults in Ireland have a chronic condition, low levels of physical activity and experience loneliness and social isolation. Additionally, approximately a third of adults over 65 years of age fall each year. Additionally, the unprecedented consequences of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic,...

Randomised controlled trial of reduced versus standard volume platelet transfusion in preterm babies with thrombocytopenia (with add-on studies to explore mechanisms of harm)

Platelets are cells which help blood clot but they also have other effects such as directing pathways of inflammation.  Premature babies often have low platelets, particularly if they have an infection or bowel inflammation. Doctors give platelet transfusions because they think that this prevents bleeding but there is no evidence...

Safeguarding the Brain Of Our Smallest Children- an open-label phase-III randomsied trial of cerebral oximetry combined with a treatment guideline versus treatment as usual in premature infants

Approximately 25,000 preterm infants are born more than 12 weeks early every year in Europe. For these preterm infants, the consequences of such an early birth include a high risk of death and brain injury. About one in five will die and almost one quarter of all survivors will be at risk of longer-term developmental problems....

Emerge-2: placebo-controlled RCT of the Effectiveness of MEtformin in addition to usual care in the Reduction of Gestational diabetes mellitus Effects

Diabetes (high blood sugars) developing during pregnancy is called Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM). GDM is increasing, affecting one-in-eight pregnant women in Ireland. Women with GDM have an increased risk of complications including delivery by Caesarean section and more blood pressure problems. Women with GDM have a 7-fold...

An Education and eXercise intervention (EDX-Ireland) for gluteal tendinopathy in an Irish setting: a feasibility randomised controlled trial (LEAP-Ireland trial)

Gluteal tendinopathy is a chronic condition which affects tendons of the gluteal (buttock) muscles of the hip. This condition is also known as Greater Trochanteric Pain Syndrome (GTPS). It can result in significant pain that can last for months or years. It can disturb sleep and affect everyday activities such as...

The StrokeCog-R study: a randomised pilot study of a novel cognitive rehabilitation intervention in stroke

Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability in Ireland and worldwide. Many people are aware of the physical disabilities that occur following stroke, but are less aware of the cognitive problems that people experience. Cognitive problems, or cognitive impairment, include difficulties with thinking, memory, and concentration. They...

European Blood Pressure Intensive Control after Stroke-Pilot trial (EPICS-Pilot)

Stroke is the second leading cause of death, the leading cause of new disability and a major contributing cause of dementia and healthcare costs in the world. About one-third of recovered stroke survivors will have second stroke or heart attack by 5 years. High blood pressure (hypertension) is the leading treatable condition...

SENSE-Cog Care: A feasibility study of hearing and vision support to improve quality of life in care home residents with dementia

What is the need?  Of the 55,000 people with dementia in Ireland, nearly 17,000 live in nursing homes. Over 90% of these residents have significant hearing and vision problems that are frequently undetected or under-corrected. Also, the sensory environment (noise, bad lighting) in many nursing homes may contribute to poor...

Randomised Placebo-Controlled Trial of Early Targeted Treatment of Patent Ductus Arteriosus with Paracetamol in Extremely Low Birth Weight Infants

Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) is common in newborn infants, especially premature infants. During pregnancy, the Ductus Arteriosus is an open channel between the two main blood vessels coming from the baby's heart. After birth it usually closes during the first few days. For very premature babies it may take longer to close, or may not...

Maximising medication adherence and minimising physician interia: Lowering to target the blood pressure of older patients with hypertension-A cluster randomised feasibility study in general practice

High blood pressure can lead to strokes and heart disease. Despite treatment, many patients continue to have uncontrolled blood pressure. In Ireland, we do very badly in this area - the worst of sixteen high income countries worldwide. For example, the proportion of Irish male patients with controlled blood pressure is 17% - in Canada,...

OPTimization of Medication by transdisciplinary Assessment of drug Treatment in Elderly hospitizalised patients (OPTIMATE): application of a definitive intervention by physicians or clinical pharmacists

Older people commonly experience multimorbid illness i.e. several chronic medical conditions occurring in the same patient simultaneously. Each of these conditions is usually treated with one or more medications, such that multimorbid illness usually results in several medications being simultaneously prescribed long-term; this is...

Enhancing Men’s Awareness of Testicular Disease (E-Mat): A Feasibility Study and Study Within A Trial (SWAT)

Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in European men younger than 50 years. In Ireland, 176 men are diagnosed with testicular cancer each year. Testicular cancer treatments, especially in late stages, can cause infertility, heart, and neurological diseases. Other testicular diseases can also cause lumps and bumps. These are...

HRCI Support Award

Award supporting HRCI activities.

IPPOSI Support Award

Award supporting IPPOSI activities.

WHO Solidarity Trial Ireland

WHO Solidarity Trial Ireland

Building research capacity, harnessing data and strengthening health systems to improve outcomes in community emergency & unscheduled care in Ireland

This research project aims to improve systems of community emergency care by focusing on a condition called Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA). OHCA is an emergency where a person’s heart suddenly stops pumping blood around the body. It happens without warning, often because of an abnormal heart rhythm. In Ireland 2500 people suffer...

An analysis of nurse-led COVID-19 interventions among homeless populations – a mixed methods study

This research project will study the effectiveness of nursing care given to prevent, identify or treat COVID-19 among people who are homeless. Research shows that homeless populations are more at risk of infections because of existing health issues and diseases, poor nutrition, addictions and mental health problems. People who are...

Sustaining increased and improved access to opioid substitution treatment (OST) in Ireland: a mixed-methods study to evaluate the impact of national contingency OST guidelines on process and client outcomes, and identify quality indicators for the continued and safe delivery of OST throughout and beyond COVID-19.

People who use heroin have a risk of death six times higher than the general population. The most effective treatment for heroin use is the prescription of legal, substitution medicine, most commonly methadone. This is called opioid substitution treatment or OST. Most people in OST attend a specialist outpatient addiction service,...

Understanding and Enhancing Medication Safety During COVID-19: The CONNECTS (COVID-Nineteen Medication Safety) Toolkit

Medicines are the most common treatment used to maintain and improve health. Due to COVID19, the way in which people access and use medication in their communities has changed rapidly and in an unprecedented way. Many are using technology to avoid potential exposure to COVID19 and we do not yet understand the impact on medicines safety...

Manipulating macrophage bioenergetics to improve patient outcomes in TB infection

Tuberculosis (TB) is the most lethal infectious disease worldwide, causing 1.8 million deaths annually. For the last 4 years in Ireland, we have seen a doubling of TB cases after the use of immuno-suppressants called TNF blockers, and the emergence of drug resistant TB in Irish people for the first time in this regard. Targeting and...

Oral health in adults with Cystic Fibrosis

Approximately 1 in 19 Irish people are said to 'carry' one copy of the altered gene that causes Cystic Fibrosis (CF). Half of people born with cystic fibrosis in 2017 will live to at least 47. This is a remarkable medical advance, however this means that we now have a shortage of evidence for the healthcare management of adults...

Progressing Sláintecare delivery from proposal to implementation: Insights from palliative care in Ireland

Sláintecare, Ireland’s national ten-year reform plan recommends universal healthcare. This represents the biggest Irish health system reform since its inception. Using palliative care as an example this project examines the development universal palliative care internationally and applies these learnings to Ireland.

Through a...

Measures of wellbeing for use in economic evaluation: valuing and assessing health outcomes in Ireland

In Ireland, healthcare decisions primarily concentrate on maximising health gain. However, with more integrated social care, there is growing recognition that this perspective is too narrow. Health maximisation is unlikely to be a relevant objective, particularly where demand for social care is high (e.g. in chronic diseases,...

Iron deficiency assessment for protection of the newborn brain

Iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency in the world. About 1 in 4 people do not have enough iron to stay healthy. Pregnant women, infants and young children are at high risk of iron deficiency, as they need more iron than other population groups to support growth and development. Maternal health, including body...

Food industry corporate political activity and its potential influence on public health policy, research and practice in Ireland

In Ireland, non-communicable diseases (NCD), which include diabetes, cardio-vascular diseases and cancers, contribute to premature death and increased suffering and disability. Unhealthy diets, particularly those high in ultra-processed food products, and obesity, are one of the primary risks factors for NCD. Internationally...

Blood-based biomarkers for early detection of preclinical neurocognitive disorders

With more people now living longer lives, dementia is becoming an increasingly important problem in society. One of the biggest challenges in designing studies of potential new treatments for dementia, is accurately predicting which people are most likely to develop dementia in the future, prior to them showing signs of the disease....

Exercise therapy for degenerative meniscal tears in the primary care - a feasibility cluster randomised controlled trial

Knee pain due to a degenerative meniscal tear is a common joint condition seen in Irish orthopaedic clinics. Changes to the knee joint and meniscus (cartilage within the knee that helps cushion the joint) occur normally with age but can become painful in some middle-aged adults. Exercise is recommended as the main treatment to aid...

Scenario and intervention modelling in Ireland for stroke: Evaluating the effect of alternative policy scenarios and interventions for stroke in Ireland on outcomes and costs

One in every four people in Ireland will have a stroke in their lifetime. People are less likely to die if they have a stroke than in previous decades, partly due to new treatments that prevent further strokes and improve outcomes.  For every three people who survive their stroke, two acquire some type of disability such as...

Using knowledge translation to enhance the use of evidence in public health decision-making by policymakers and healthcare managers in Ireland

Health policy refers to decisions, plans, and actions that are undertaken to achieve specific health care goals within a society. Using high-quality evidence to inform how health policies are made is crucial to ensure safe and effective healthcare and to optimise patient and public health outcomes. Despite this, international research...

Hip fracture outcome recording and geographic equality

Hip fracture is a serious event in the lives of older people with around one in five individuals dying in the first year after their injury and many more losing their independence. Currently in Ireland, little is known about how people recover in the longer-term after hip fracture and many do not receive routine follow-up. In the last...

COVID-19 and the role and impact of the built environment on resident, family, and staff experiences in residential long-term care settings: Key findings and recommendations for building adaptation and retrofit.

Supporting the Sustainability of Long-Term Residential Care in a COVID-19 Environment and in the Future.

Long-term residential care (LTRC) homes have been at the centre of the COVID-19 pandemic, with high infection rates among staff and residents. A significant proportion of COVID-19 deaths have occurred in LTRC residents....

Plasma-based therapies for bone infection

Orthopaedic infection is life-threatening and current treatments are only sparingly successful. Despite aggressive peri-operative antibiotic treatments, 1.5% of knee revisions, 0.7 to 11.9%, of spinal infections (depending on the complexity of the procedure) and up to 27% of open fractures become infected. Moreover, the complexity of...

Development of a rapid, highly sensitive, handheld Raman-based device for detection of SARS-CoV-2 and serological responses against SARS-CoV-2

Serological assays to detect antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 are critical to study immune responses to the virus, determine precise rates of infection, track progression of infections, and identify immune individuals in order to limit exposure of susceptible groups or as potential sources of convalescent serum therapeutics. The...

Treating Primary aldosteronism-induced hypertension via microwave thermal therapy

In this tripartite US-Ireland R&D partnership program R01 research plan, we propose the development, optimization, and evaluation of a minimally-invasive microwave thermal therapy (MWT) system for definitive treatment of primary aldosteronism. Primary aldosteronism (PA) accounts for 5 - 12% of all hypertension and confers a higher...

Enhancing healthcare transition and longitudinal care for adolescents and adults with spina bifida and/or hydrocephalus in Ireland

Spina Bifida (SB) and hydrocephalus are lifelong conditions. Many people who have SB will also have hydrocephalus. While there are a number of supports and care plans for children with SB and/or hydrocephalus in Ireland, transitioning into adult care may pose problems. This project will investigate the experiences of those affected by...

Maximising the quality of stroke care in Ireland – Development of a National Stroke Audit

Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability. In recent years, improvements in stroke treatment have led to more people surviving stroke and to lower levels of disability. However, outcomes for stroke patients vary depending on the quality of care received. This indicates a need for a National Stroke Audit, involving regular...

Practice Enhancement for Exclusive Breastfeeding (PEEB)

Breastmilk makes the world healthier, smarter, and more equal as reported by The Lancet Series on
breastfeeding in 2016. There is substantial scientific international evidence that demonstrates the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding for infants, in the short, medium and long term. Such benefits include fewer infections ,increased...

Meeting the challenge of childhood obesity treatment in Irish Healthcare: Generating Data to Facilitate Action.

Obesity is caused by the storage of too much fat tissue in the body. When children become obese they can have difficulties with their physical and mental health including:

• high blood pressure;
• painful joints;
• breathing difficulties;
• anxiety and early development of other diseases.
...

• The effect of after action review in enhancing safety culture and second victim experience and its implementation in an Irish hospital

  After Action Review is a discussion of an event with the team involved in the event. Four questions are asked:

  1. what did we expect to happen?
  2. what actually happened?
  3. why was there a difference?
  4. and what have we learnt?

  An independent person guides the process. The purpose is to...

• National Helicobacter pylori antibiotic resistance surveillance to guide clinical practice

  Helicobacter pylori infection is a public health issue. It remains one of the most common infections in adults in Ireland and is associated with significant disease as the main cause of stomach ulcers and stomach cancers. Infection is more common in lower socioeconomic groups and increases with age.

  Despite significant work...

• Expanding the lung donor pool: interventions to improve donor management, expand ex vivo lung perfusion and repair injured donor lungs

  When people sustain injury to the brain after a fall, road traffic accident, or major brain bleed, they require care in an Intensive Care Unit. After major brain injury, a patient’s lungs also often fail – this is termed "Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome" (ARDS).

  ARDS after brain injury is common and contributes significantly...

• Improving psychosocial supports for youth mental health

  This research program will focus on improving the mental health of young people with serious mental health disorders. Serious mental health disorders (including schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders) are ranked among the top causes of years lived with disability.

  My research will build on what is currently known about...

• Towards an integrated model of care for older adults transitioning from the Emergency Department to the community

  Worldwide increases in life expectancy are leading to the rapid ageing of populations. By 2031, it is forecasted that there will be more than one million older adults in Ireland, representing 20% of our overall population. It is widely accepted that older adults frequently avail of health services in the community and in the hospital...

• Precision diagnosis and care for families with pulmonary fibrosis in Ireland

  diopathic-Pulmonary-Fibrosis (IPF) is a devastating fatal lung disease leading to death at an average of 3 years after diagnosis and while new drugs offer hope of slowing the disease, lung transplant is the only effective cure. Genetic factors contribute significantly to the risk of developing IPF. In Ireland our results from the IPF...

• Identifying children at risk of schizophrenia

  Five of the ten leading causes of disability in young people are mental illnesses, of which psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia, are the most severe and disabling.

  The Health Service Executive recently launched a National Clinical Programme for Early Intervention in Psychosis, which emphasizes the importance of...

• Health Services Research Centre for UnderStanding TailOred iMplementation Involving Stakeholders, Evidence and skills Development (CUSTOMISED) for policy and practice

  I will find ways to answer one of the most pressing and difficult questions facing health systems around the world- how do we implement effective changes in everyday healthcare in a way that is acceptable and practical for health professionals and service users?

  We know from research that there are many things that health...

• Linking 11-oxygenated androgens, skeletal muscle glucose metabolism and diabetes risk in polycystic ovary syndrome

  Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) affects up to 10% of all women. It is characterised by increased blood levels of hormones called androgens, as well as irregular menstrual cycles and multiple small cysts on the ovaries. Traditionally PCOS has been predominantly perceived as a reproductive disorder impacting on fertility. However...

• Towards dynamic resilience in health system performance and reform

  Worldwide increases in life expectancy are leading to the rapid ageing of populations. By 2031, it is forecasted that there will be more than one million older adults in Ireland, representing 20% of our overall population. It is widely accepted that older adults frequently avail of health services in the community and in the hospital...

• Collaboration to reduce antimicrobial use and resistance and identify opportunities for improvement and awareness

  Infections are often treated with antibiotics, even though antibiotics are not always the best option. Only infections that are caused by bacteria can be treated with antibiotics, infections caused by viruses do not respond to antibiotic treatment. An additional problem is that bacteria are becoming more and more resistant to...

• Characterising problematic polypharmacy in older community-dwelling people attending general practice

  As people grow older they are more likely to live with multiple chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and arthritis. As a result these people are prescribed multiple medications by their doctors. In Ireland, for example, 6 in 10 people aged over 65 years are prescribed five or more medications and 2 in 10 are prescribed 10...

• Targeting the compromised brain endothelial barrier function during cerebral malaria with AT2 receptor agonists.

  Strengthening of inter-cellular junctions of endothelial cells would facilitate important translational applications for a variety of diseases where endothelial integrity is compromised. As a first model, we have chosen cerebral malaria (CM), which remains the deadliest manifestation of malaria. It is caused by Plasmodium falciparum...

• INCA SUn: A prospective randomised multicentre study to optimise the management of symptomatically uncontrolled asthma.

  Inhalers are used in the treatment of patients with severe asthma. About 10% of people with asthma fail to achieve control of their asthma symptoms with inhalers. These patients with severe asthma, are often treated with extra medications or have severe attacks. One reason why these patients may not achieve control of their asthma is...

• The STRIDER Trial: A randomised controlled trial of sildenafil therapy In dismal prognosis early-onset intrauterine growth restriction

  Severe early-onset in utero growth restriction (IUGR) affects babies in womb and is caused by reduced blood flow through the placenta. There is no treatment or cure for IUGR and the current clinical management involves intensive fetal surveillance with elective delivery performed when there is evidence of fetal distress and before the...

• Alendronate for Prevention of AntiRetroviral Therapy-associated bone loss (APART study)

  Over six thousand people have been diagnosed with HIV infection in Ireland. People living with HIV are now living longer because of effective therapy. However, therapy is life-long and is associated with significant side effects. In addition, immune damage induced by HIV persists even with effective therapy. As a result, people with...

• STandaRd Issue TrANsfusion versuS Fresher red blood cell Use in intenSive carE (TRANSFUSE) - a randomised controlled trial.

  Red blood cell (RBC) transfusion is required to treat a number of life threatening conditions within the general hospital setting and Intensive Care Units (ICU). Red blood cell units represent a very limited but essential resource. Given the value and relative scarcity of RBC, it is important to ensure its use in the optimal way. A...