St Luke's Symposium 2021 - Focus on Global Vaccination

St Luke's Symposium 2021 - Focus on Global Vaccination

14 & 15 October 2021 | Virtual event

Book your place at this unmissable event

The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland’s annual flagship event, St Luke’s Symposium, will take place on 14th and 15th October 2021. The Annual Stated Meeting of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland takes place on Monday, 18 October 2021. 

A steering committee, led by the RCPI Director of Education and Academic Programmes, Dr Sinéad Murphy with representatives from all of the RCPI Faculties and Institutes, have developed a lively and thought-provoking line-up of topic and sessions where experts from home and abroad will share their knowledge, experience and views on vaccination, the pandemic and beyond.

This year, once again, the symposium will be online with speakers coming from our home, No 6 Kildare Street. All talks will be recorded so they will be available to watch back if you miss them.

 

Day one | Session one

The COVID-19 vaccine - Where are we now? An Irish and global perspective

Thursday 14 October 2021 | 2pm – 3:30pm | 2 CPD 

Prof Mary Horgan, RCPI President, opens St Luke's Symposium 2021.

The session will be chaired by Prof Karina Butler, Chair of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee.

Dr Sinéad Murphy, RCPI Director of Education and Academic Programmes, will introduce each of the session and speakers.

This opening session is an opportunity for us to assess the global situation, in terms of COVID-19 and vaccination bringing many perspectives together.

We are delighted that Professor Sir Andrew J. Pollard FMedSci, Professor of Paediatric Infection and Immunity at the University of Oxford and the Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group will open this session with a talk on 'Will vaccines save 2021'.

This will be followed by updates on COVID-19 and vaccination from our colleagues in Sudan, Zambia, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Malaysia, New Zealand and the USA from:

  • Dr Zainab AlMusa, Infectious Disease Consultant at King Fahad specialist hospital, Dammam, Saudi Arabia

  • Professor Victor Mukonka, Director General, Zambia National Public Health Institute and Partner to the HSE-RCPI Equals initiative in Zambia

  • Dr Ayat Abu-Agla, Community Medicine consultant, Khartoum, Sudan

  • Professor Rod Jackson, Professor Epidemiology, School of Population Health, University of Auckland

  • Dr Nahed Seddiq, Internal Medicine & Infectious diseases specialist , Bahrain Defense Force / Royal Medical Services – Kingdom Of Bahrain

This will be followed by conversation with Prof Chris Fitzpatrick, Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist and HSE Clinical Lead for COVID-19 Vaccinations for the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group, and Prof David Weakliam, Global Health Programme Director, HSE, will discuss the challenges we now face, looking at issues including global equity when it comes to vaccination.

This event is a benefit of your Membership and Fellowship and is FREE for RCPI Trainees, Members and Fellows who are in good standing. There is a €50.00 fee for all other attendees.

Book your place at this session using the booking links at the bottom of this page. 


Day one | Session two

Is the COVID-19 vaccine the Holy Grail?

Thursday 14 October 2021 | 4pm – 5:30pm | 2 CPD

The session will be chaired by Dr Eoin Slattery, MD FRCPI, Consultant Gastroenterologist & Honorary Senior Lecturer, Group Clinical Lead for Endoscopy and Gastroenterology National Speciality Director for Training.

Dr Sinéad Murphy, RCPI Director of Education and Academic Programmes, will introduce the session and speakers.

Our panel of experts will explore the benefits and limitations of the COVID-19 vaccines for various groups.

Prof Mary Keogan, Consultant Immunologist at Beaumont Hospital and incoming Dean of the RCPI Faculty of Pathology will discuss the impact of the vaccines and the next steps in combatting SARs COV2 with her talk 'Are we nearly there yet? A Clinical Immunologist's perspective'.

Dr Cliona Murphy, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the Coombe Hospital and Chair, Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists will give a talk entitled 'Covid 19 vaccination and pregnancy - A Journey' focusing on how the advice has evolved with each wave of the virus.

Dr Eoghan de Barra, Consultant in Infectious Diseases in Beaumont Hospital, will discuss various medically-vulnerable patient groups and how the vaccine may not be the solution for such patients.

Dr Fiona O’Reilly, PhD, CEO Safetynet Primary Care

The talks will be followed by a live discussion, and question and answer session.

This event is a benefit of your Membership and Fellowship and is FREE for RCPI Trainees, Members and Fellows who are in good standing. There is a €50.00 fee for all other attendees.

Book your place at this session using the booking links at the bottom of this page.


Day one | Public Talk

A Guide to Living with COVID-19

Thursday 14 October 2021 | 7pm- 8:30pm | 2 CPD | Free to attend

Prof Mary Horgan, RCPI President and Consultant in Infectious Diseases will chair this session.

Dr Sinéad Murphy, RCPI Director of Education and Academic Programmes, will introduce the public talk and speakers.

Living with COVID-19 is becoming the new normal. RCPI is delighted to gather a panel of experts who will discuss everything about the COVID-19 vaccines, the new reality for women who are pregnant or thinking of having a baby and what to expect when returning to the office.

Prof Karina Butler, Consultant Paediatrician and Chair, National Immunisation Advisory Committee will give her talk 'COVID CONTROL: Vaccines to the Fore!'

Dr Cliona Murphy, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the Coombe Hospital and Chair, Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Dr Murphy's talk will be called 'Unpicking the myths around vaccines and reproduction'.

Prof Seán Kennelly, Consultant Physician in Geriatric Medicine, Tallaght University Hospital. Prof Kennelly will give a talk entitled 'It’s not just COVID!- The Importance and challenges of vaccination in older people'.

Dr Deirdre Gleeson, Specialist in Occupational Medicine, Medwise. Dr Gleeson's talk is called 'Working With Covid; A Guide To The Work Safely Protocol'.

The talks will be followed by a live discussion, and question and answer session.

Book your place at this session using the booking links at the bottom of this page.


Day two 

Where to next – the pandemic and beyond

Friday 15 October 2021 | 2pm – 3:30pm | 2 CPD

Prof Anthony O'Regan, Consultant in Respiratory and Internal Medicine in University Hospital Galway, and Dean of the Institute of Medicine, RCPI, will chair this session.

Dr Sinéad Murphy, RCPI Director of Education and Academic Programmes, will introduce the session and speakers.

This session is an opportunity to hear from leading experts and the likely way forward as we move beyond the pandemic.

Dr Susan Hopkins, Interim Chief Public Health England and Clinical Advisor, UK Health Security Agency, and Consultant in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, Royal Free London. Dr Hopkins talk will be on 'The use of Point-of-Care Tests for COVID-19' and will explore the UK progress on validating and evaluating the use of lateral flow devices to diagnose symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19 and the role of these devices as part of the public health interventions.

Dr Cillian De Gascun, MD, FRCPI, FRCPath (Virology), FFPathRCPI, Consultant Virologist and Laboratory Director, and Member of National Immunisation Advisory Committee. Dr De Gascun will give a talk entitled 'SARS-CoV-2: is that it?'.

Dr Abigail Collins, Director of Public Health for Child Health, HSE, will look at 'COVID-19 and children: Schooling and healthcare – challenges and opportunities'.

Prof Pete Lunn, Behavioural Economist, ESRI 'Behavioural factors influencing Covid-19 vaccination'. This talk will describe some of the behavioural science behind Ireland’s high level of COVID-19 vaccine uptake. It will present data on trends in support for the vaccine and reasons for hesitancy, drawing lessons for future public health campaigns.

The talks will be followed by a live discussion, and question and answer session. 

This event is a benefit of your Membership and Fellowship and is FREE for RCPI Trainees, Members and Fellows who are in good standing. There is a €50.00 fee for all other attendees.

Book your place at this session using the booking links at the bottom of this page.

 

 

This year’s St Luke’s Symposium steering committee was led by Dr Sinead Murphy, Director of Education and Academic Programmes at RCPI and supported by Dr Blánaid Hayes, Faculty of Occupational Health Medicine | Karyn Harty, RCPI Council Member | Prof Mary Keogan, Incoming Dean RCPI Faculty of Pathology | Prof Chris Fitzpatrick, Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists | Dr Mohammed Ranavaya, RCPI Council Member | Dr Sarah Geoghegan, RCPI Faculty of Paediatrics | Prof David Weakliam, RCPI Faculty of Public Health Medicine | Prof Anto O’Regan, RCPI Institute of Medicine | Dr Terry McWade, RCPI CEO | Siobhán Creaton, Head of Communications and Public Affairs

Meet the speakers

Day one | Session one | The COVID-19 vaccine - Where are we now? An Irish and global perspective

Professor Sir Andrew J. Pollard FMedSci

Professor Pollard is Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Oxford and an honorary consultant paediatrician at Oxford Children’s Hospital and Fellow of St Cross College. He received a knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2021 for services to Public Health, especially in the pandemic.

His research includes the design, development and clinical evaluation of vaccines in UK, Asia, Africa and Latin America, including those for typhoid, meningococcus, Haemophilus influenzae type b, pneumococcus, plague, pertussis, influenza, rabies, coronavirus and Ebola, and leads studies using a human challenge model of paratyphoid and typhoid.

He was the chief investigator for the clinical trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in 2020, which led to authorisation of the vaccine for use in more than 170 countries with over 1 billion doses distributed by mid-July 2021. He has supervised 37 PhD students and his publications includes over 500 manuscripts and books on various topics in paediatrics and infectious diseases.

He chairs the UK Department of Health and Social Care’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, is a member of WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts. He received the Bill Marshall Award of the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Disease (ESPID) in 2013, the ESPID Distinguished Award for Education and Communication in 2015 and the Rosén von Rosenstein medal in 2019 awarded by the Swedish Paediatric Society and the Swedish Society of Medicine. He was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2016.

Dr Zainab AlMusa, Infectious Disease Consultant at King Fahad specialist hospital, Dammam, Saudi Arabia

Dr AlMusa is an Adult infectious Disease consultant and is head of the Infectious Disease division in a tertiary care centre in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia.

She has a leadership role in the Outpatient Intravenous Antibiotics Therapy (OPAT) program and in Antimicrobial stewardship in the critical care setting.

Dr AlMusa graduated from Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (formerly known as University of Dammam) with first degree honor. She is Saudi board-certified in internal medicine. She undertook postgraduate training in infectious disease at RCPI and is currently an RCPI Fellow.

Professor Victor Mukonka, Director General, Zambia National Public Health Institute and Partner to the HSE-RCPI Equals initiative in Zambia

(Picture to follow shortly)

Professor Victor Mukonka, is Director General, Zambia National Public Health Institute and Partner to the HSE-RCPI Equals initiative in Zambia. He was appointed as Director ZNPHI in 2017 to lead the Public Health Agenda in Zambia focusing on Public Health Security, disease intelligence, prevention and response to public health threats in the country and support the same agenda in the Southern Africa Regional Collaborating Centre (RCC) for the Africa CDC in the capacity of interim coordinator of the RCC and Vice Chairperson of the Advisory & Technical Council. He also lead the development of the 2017-21 Zambia National Health Strategic Plan and health chapter in the 7th National Development Plan for Zambia.

Prof Mukonka successfully coordinated the multisectoral response and mitigation of the 2017/18 cholera outbreak in Zambia while supporting similar outbreaks in the RCC. Prior to this appointment: Senior lecturer and Head public health unit 2012-2016; Director of Public Health and Research at Ministry of Health 2003 -2011. At regional level he has served as Chair and member of the Programme Subcommittee for WHO African Region, while globally he has served as Member of the Steering Committee and Advisor to the Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Development WHO–Headquarters.

Dr Ayat Abu-Agla, Community Medicine consultant, Khartoum, Sudan

Dr Ayat Abu-Agla is a Community Medicine consultant, with a MBBS, MPH and a Medical Doctorate, MRCP-FPH UK and a PhD in Global Health from TCD. She has over a decade’s experience working in the area of global health in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), predominantly in Sudan where she has held positions in healthcare, academia and professional associations.

Her research focuses on the areas of Implementation Research, Reproductive Health, Health Systems and Human Resources for Health (HRH) in post conflict and LMICS. She led the first mapping of health and medical educational pipeline survey in Sudan, the health labour market study with WHO-HQ/EMRO/AFRO and HRH migration. She advocates for and assists national and regional institutes in building capacities in the area of implementation research as a temporary adviser for TDR/WHO since 2013. She chairs the Health System Global (HSG) TWG on Teaching and Learning. She is also affiliated to Trinity College Dublin- the Centre for Global Health, where she lectures at postgraduate level on the Reproductive and Maternal Health and HRH modules, offered as part of the MSc in Global Health Programme, and on the Global Health module she also coordinates, offered as part of the Masters for Development Practice.

Dr Abu-Agla is the co-founder and research fellow at the Reproductive and Child Health Research Unit [RCRU] at the University of Medical Sciences and Technology, Khartoum-Sudan. She served as head of the Research and Publications section and M&E officer (2010-2015) at the National Human Resources for Health Observatory- Federal Ministry of Health Sudan.

Professor Rod Jackson, Professor Epidemiology, School of Population Health, University of Auckland

Professor Rod Jackson is a professor of epidemiology in the Section of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at the School of Population Health, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland. He is also the director of EPIQ (www.epiq.co.nz), an in-house group undertaking teaching and research in Evidence-based Practice (EP), health Informatics (I) and Quality improvement (Q), for healthcare services. He is medically trained, has a PhD in Epidemiology and is a fellow of the New Zealand College of Public Health Medicine. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers.

His main research interest for the last 38 years has been the epidemiology of chronic diseases, particularly cardiovascular diseases. He is one of the architects of New Zealand risk-based clinical guidelines for managing CVD risk and he leads the HRC-funded VIEW2020 (Vascular Informatics using Epidemiology & the Web 2020) research programme (see University of Auckland web page on the VIEW research programme).

Dr Nahed Seddiq, Internal Medicine & Infectious diseases specialist , Bahrain Defense Force / Royal Medical Services – Kingdom Of Bahrain
(Bio to follow shortly)

Professor Chris Fitzpatrick, Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist and HSE Clinical Lead for COVID-19 Vaccinations for the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group

Professor Chris Fitzpatrick, is Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist and HSE Clinical Lead for COVID-19 Vaccinations for the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group. He is former Master of Coombe Women and Infant's University Hospital. As part of his training in Obstetrics & Gynaecology he has worked in all three of the Dublin Maternity Hospitals.

In 1991/1992 he completed a Fellowship in Urogynaecology and Urodynamics in the University of Michigan, Ann Abor, USA. He was appointed as Senior Registrar/Assistant Master in the Coombe Women & Infants University Hospital in 1993 and subsequently as a Consultant in 1996.

Professor David Weakliam, Director, Global Health Programme, Health Service Executive

 Prof David Weakliam is Director of the HSE Global Health Programme. He is a Specialist in Public Health Medicine and has worked in global health for more than thirty years, including twelve years in Nepal, Liberia, Sudan, DR Congo and Ghana. In his current role he manages HSE bilateral programmes for health service improvement with Ministries of Health in Mozambique, Ethiopia, Sudan and Zambia. He also leads the ESTHER Ireland Programme which facilitates health professionals and health institutions in Ireland to develop links with low and middle income countries. He is Chair of the Global Health Strategic Working Group of the Forum of Irish Post Graduate Medical Training Bodies and Adjunct Professor in global health at University College Dublin.

 


Day one | Session two | Is the COVID-19 vaccine the Holy Grail?

Prof Mary Keogan, Consultant Immunologist at Beaumont Hospital and incoming Dean of the RCPI Faculty of Pathology

Prof Mary Keogan is Clinical Lead for the National Clinical Programme in Pathology, and a Consultant Clinical Immunologist in Beaumont Hospital Dublin, and Dean Elect of the Faculty of Pathology.

Prof Keogan studied medicine at University College Dublin, undertook postgraduate medical training in medicine in Dublin, specialist training in Immunology in Cambridge in the UK, and as a Consultant Immunologist in Papworth NHS Trust, developed a specialised clinical immunology service.

Since returning to Dublin, Dr Keogan has developed a busy clinical and laboratory immunology service in Beaumont Hospital, and is medical director of the National Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Service for Solid Organ Transplantation.

Research interests include optimisation of transplantation outcomes, and improving clinical effectiveness in the use of diagnostic tests.

Dr Cliona Murphy, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the Coombe Hospital and Chair, Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, RCPI

Dr Cliona Murphy, is Chair of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists – the first woman Chair in its over 50 year history and a member of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC). A Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the Coombe Women and Infants Hospital and Tallaght University Hospital, Dr Murphy, is a leading advocate for COVID19 vaccination for women who are considering pregnancy, who are pregnant and those who have just delivered their babies.

She led the review and development of guidance on vaccination in pregnancy to protect against COVID19 on NIAC. A graduate of University College Cork, Dr Murphy served as Ireland representative to RCOG Council from 2012 - 2016 and was Head of the Gynaecology Department at Tallaght Hospital from 2012 - 2016.

Dr Murphy is committed to continuing the Institute’s mission to set standards in clinical care and in postgraduate education and to strengthening the professional links with our midwifery colleagues and engage with women in providing women-centred care.

Dr Eoghan de Barra, Consultant in Infectious Diseases in Beaumont Hospital

Dr Eoghan de Barra, Consultant in Infectious Diseases in Beaumont Hospital. Dr de Barra received his medical degree from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin and completed specialist training in Infectious Diseases and General Medicine in Ireland and South Africa.

In 2011 he took a post as Research Fellow and Lecturer in the department of Tropical Medicine and International Health at the RCSI and conducted malaria vaccine research work in Dublin and at the University of Oxford, UK. In 2014 he took up a post at Imperial College NHS Trust, London as a Consultant in Infectious Diseases and General Internal Medicine, where he was the clinical lead for the OPAT programme, a site lead for Neuro-Infection, a regional lead for TB including large numbers of MDR TB and led the Trust’s Ebola response.

In 2017 he returned to Dublin taking up a post as Consultant in Infectious Diseases and Senior Lecturer at Beaumont Hospital / RCSI. He is past secretary of the Infectious Diseases Society of Ireland, current UEMS-ID national representative and principal investigator for several COVID-19 clinical trials.

Dr Fiona O’Reilly, CEO of Safetynet

Dr Fiona O’Reilly has devoted her career over the past 3 decades working in the health care area, both nationally and internationally – with a focus on and passion for achieving health equity for all and bringing humanitarianism home.

As CEO of the Medical Charity Safetynet Primary Care, she has led the organisation to adapt and change to respond to the Covid crisis to protect the health of marginalised groups and particularly those living in congregated settings. Safetynet has established a Covid Helpline for triage and testing, a community assessment hub for assessment of Covid positives and presumed positives and a cluster response unit to respond to outbreaks in settings such as Direct Provision Centres, homeless hostels and Traveller halting sites.

In Fiona’s earlier carer she established and managed programmes in war-torn countries (e.g. Sudan, Somalia, and Ethiopia) and conducted evaluations in Afghanistan, Zambia and Kenya.

Fiona trained as a RGN and RSCN and has a MSc from TCD in Community Health. Her PhD thesis "Reality or Rhetoric, Community Involvement in Primary Care in North Inner City Dublin" allowed her to critically review primary care in the context of urban deprivation. Fiona’s Post-doctoral research at the Dept. of Anthropology at NUI Maynooth allowed her to gain an understanding of the culture and nature of addiction in deprived communities. She worked as a Senior Research Fellow in Social Inclusion, at the Partnership for Health Equity (www.healthequity.ie/about-us) – leading the research study for the 'Homelessness: An Unhealthy State' report (www.healthequity.ie/our-work)

Fiona is also a founding director of the Emergency Nutrition Network (www.ennonline.net).She previously worked as director for the Agency for Personnel Services Overseas (APSO) Humanitarian Assistance Training Programme and has taught on a number of MSc training programmes (TCD, UCD, RCSI). Fiona currently is also the Assistant Programme Director (Part Time) on the North Dublin City GP Training Programme, based at UCD’s Catherine McAuley Centre in Dublin.

Day one | Public Talk | A Guide to Living with COVID-19

Professor Karina Butler, Consultant Paediatrician and Chair, National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC)

Professor Karina Butler, was a Consultant Paediatrician at Children’s Health Ireland specialising in Infectious Diseases for many years. She is a Clinical Professor of Paediatrics at UCD. A former president of the Infectious Diseases Society of Ireland (2018-2020), she has chaired the National Immunisation Advisory Committee of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland since 2016.

Professor Butler was appointed to NPHET in late 2020, is a member of the COVID-19 Expert Advisory Group of HIQA and a member of the High Level Task Force for COVID. As Chair of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee she is committed to the prevention of infectious diseases using safe and effective vaccines to protect the health of our population.

Dr Cliona Murphy, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the Coombe Hospital and Chair, Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, RCPI

Dr Cliona Murphy is Chair of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists – the first woman Chair in its over 50 year history and a member of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC). A Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the Coombe Women and Infants Hospital and Tallaght University Hospital, Dr Murphy, is a leading advocate for COVID19 vaccination for women who are considering pregnancy, who are pregnant and those who have just delivered their babies.

She led the review and development of guidance on vaccination in pregnancy to protect against COVID19 on NIAC. A graduate of University College Cork, Dr Murphy served as Ireland representative to RCOG Council from 2012 - 2016 and was Head of the Gynaecology Department at Tallaght Hospital from 2012 - 2016.

Dr Murphy is committed to continuing the Institute’s mission to set standards in clinical care and in postgraduate education and to strengthening the professional links with our midwifery colleagues and engage with women in providing women-centred care.

 

Professor Sean Kennelly, Consultant Physician in Geriatric and Stroke Medicine, Tallaght University Hospital

Professor Kennelly is a consultant physician in geriatric and stroke medicine in Tallaght University Hospital and Clinical Associate Professor of Medical Gerontology in Trinity College. He is Director of the Institute for Memory and Cognition, and the Cognitive Clinical Trials Unit in Tallaght University Hospital, Dublin. He is principle investigator on the NH-COVAIR project which is investigating predictors of disease severity, clinical outcomes, and antiviral immune responses to COVID-19 and vaccinations in Nursing Home Residents. He is co-lead investigator on Dementia Trials Ireland, a national clinical trials network, and is chair of Dementia Research Network Ireland (DRNI).

A fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London & Ireland, he has extensively published in his main research areas of Ageing, brain health and dementia. He has served as chief and principal investigator on several international clinical trials in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. He has served as principle investigator and lead-clinical advisor on several industry collaborations investigating novel applications of digital biomarkers in detection of cognitive decline. He is a member of the clinical and research advisory panel for the Alzheimer's Society Ireland and a principal investigator in the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience. He is a faculty member for the Global Brain Health Institute in Trinity College Dublin.

Dr Deirdre Gleeson, Specialist in Occupational Medicine, Medwise

Dr Deirdre Gleeson graduated in 1992 from Trinity College, Dublin and completed vocational training in General Practice in 1996. Dr Gleeson completed the specialist registrar-training program with The Faculty of Occupational Medicine of The Royal College of Physicians in Ireland in 2004 and is now a Fellow of the Faculty.

In 2005, Dr Gleeson founded Medwise Occupational Health Services, which has clinics in Swords and Naas and a mobile occupational health surveillance unit: Medwise Mobile Medicals. Medwise is accredited with SEQOHS: Safe Effective Quality Occupational Health Service.

Dr Gleeson has a special interest in occupational injury case management, sickness absence assessment and all aspects of fitness for work.

Dr Gleeson set up the Medwise Calcutta Project to help street children and regularly travels to Calcutta to volunteer in a health clinic. www.medwise.ie | www.mobilemedicals.ie

 


Day two | Where to next – the pandemic and beyond

Dr Susan Hopkins, Interim Chief Public Health and Clinical Advisor, UK Health Security Agency
Consultant in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, Royal Free London

Dr Susan Hopkins is Interim Chief Public Health and Clinical Advisor, UK Health Security Agency and Consultant in Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at Royal Free London. She is Chair of the Overview Committee of the English Surveillance Programme for Antimicrobial Utilisation and Resistance (ESPAUR) which aims to develop, maintain and disseminate robust data relevant to antimicrobial use and stewardship for us across healthcare settings and to measure the impact of antimicrobial use and stewardship on patient safety.

Her main research interests are in outbreak investigation and surveillance and healthcare associated infections. She is a member of many national expert groups and Chairs the Royal College of Physicians working group on HCAI and sits on the PHE’s HCAI & AMR Programme Board and on the MHRA Expert Advisory Group on Anti-Infectives. She has co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and is Programme Director for the UCL MSc in Healthcare associated Infection Control.

Dr Cillian De Gascun, MD, FRCPI, FRCPath (Virology), FFPathRCPI, Consultant Virologist and Laboratory Director, and Member of National Immunisation Advisory Committee.

Cillian De Gascun is a consultant virologist who graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1998. He undertook his basic medical training in Dublin and Brisbane, returning to Dublin in 2002, and completed his specialist virology training in the National Virus Reference Laboratory (NVRL) at University College Dublin (UCD) and Bart’s & The London NHS Foundation Trust in London. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (FRCPI), a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists in the UK (FRCPath) in Virology, and a Fellow of the Faculty of Pathology of the RCPI. His MD was awarded in 2011 by UCD for work on HIV carried out in the NVRL under the supervision of Professors William Hall and Colm Bergin.

Cillian was appointed Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory and returned to Ireland permanently in 2013. His main research interests continue to be in the area of the molecular epidemiology of viruses, antiviral resistance, vaccine-preventable infections, and the utilisation of these data to inform national health policy. In January 2020, Cillian was asked to Chair the SARS-CoV-2 Expert Advisory Group, a subgroup of the National Public Health Emergency Team.

Dr Abigail Collins, Director of Public Health for Child Health Public Health, HSE

Dr Abigail Collins is newly appointed as a Director of Public Health for Child Health Public Health within the HSE and will lead on the HSE National Healthy Childhood Programme.

Abigail graduated from University College London with a degree in Human Genetics, before going on to study Medicine, also at UCL, with her special interests in rare disease and maternal / infant wellbeing explored further. After qualifying in Medicine she undertook several generic hospital rotations in Central London, including A&E, Obs and Gynae, Paediatrics and Pathology before starting specialist training in Paediatrics, in Scotland.

Front line work exposure in London and Glasgow fostered an understanding and necessity of the basic determinants of health. The challenges were evident for many families and communities to help and support children to develop and further their opportunities (health and otherwise) and to access specialist care when needed and appropriate. This increasing awareness ultimately led to a period of study at Cambridge University and equivalent of higher specialist training in Public Health Medicine in Cambridgeshire.

After relocation to Ireland, she completed her Public Health training late 2016 and has worked in many areas across public health at consultant level since then. Since March 2020, pandemic control has been a critical element of work for a public health physician and much of Abigail’s time has been spent trying to ensure needs for children are not neglected, both within Covid, but also elsewhere across the health service.

 

Prof Pete Lunn, Head of Behavioural Research Unit, ESRI

Professor Pete Lunn is the founder and head of the Behavioural Research Unit (BRU) at the ESRI. His primary area of study is how people make decisions that affect their financial, environmental and health outcomes. The BRU has pioneered the use of experimental methods for addressing policy problems in Ireland.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the BRU has undertaken multiple studies on compliance with public health guidance, risk perception and willingness to be vaccinated, including the regular Social Activity Measure for the Department of the Taoiseach. Pete has served on the Behavioural Change Subgroup of NPHET, the Communications and Behavioural Advisory Committee to the Department of Health, the Rapid Testing Expert Advisory Group.

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