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The National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre (NPEC) is based in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University College Cork. The NPEC is funded by the Department of Health through the Health Service Executive (HSE). The overall objective of the Centre is to collaborate with each of the 19 Irish maternity services to translate clinical audit data and epidemiological evidence into improved maternity care for families in Ireland.
Achievement of our mission is carried out using a range of research methodologies, including: prospective surveillance; Hospital In-Patient Enquiry (HIPE) data analysis; and systematic reviews.
Specific Roles of the Centre:
To collaborate with government agencies to collate outcome data from maternity hospitals in Ireland.
To contribute to the development of clinical protocols and guidelines based on analysis of data.
To translate outcome data for mothers and children into improved clinical practice.
To act as a resource for the Minister of Health and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.
To publish annually an analysis of national perinatal data.
To develop research thematic areas in the perinatal space.
To encourage the development of a national uniform obstetrics chart/record.
To establish appropriate expert sub-committees to assess and review material and sign off on reports (e.g. maternal mortality, prenatal mortality, birth defects).
To enhance public and patient involvement in NPEC activities and to foster awareness of NPEC outputs amongst patients and the public
Paul Corcoran is a Senior Lecturer in Perinatal Epidemiology with the National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre (in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology) and with the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health.
Paul's degrees include a BSc "joint honours" degree in Statistics and Computer Science, a Masters degree in Statistics and a PhD in Epidemiology, all obtained at UCC. He has more than 70 peer-reviewed scientific publications and has contributed chapters to international texts.
Before joining the Centre, Paul was Deputy Director of the National Suicide Research Foundation and Adjunct Senior Lecturer with the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. He was a member of the writing group of Reach Out (Ireland's National Strategy for Action on Suicide Prevention), a Visiting Professor at the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oviedo in Spain and Chair of the International Association for Suicide Prevention Special Interest Group on National Systems for Certifying Suicide Deaths.
Colleen is a Clinical Research Officer with the National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre (NPEC), working on the Termination of Pregnancy audit and the Perinatal Mortality and Morbidity Event Report Tool in the capacity of quality and review midwife.
Colleen completed her midwifery training in the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street before undertaking a MSc Research in the School of Medicine and Health evaluating outcomes of women who choose midwife-led care in Cork University Maternity Hospital. From there, she took up a role as Research Midwife on a multi-centre, phase IIa, clinical study of predictive testing for preeclampsia: Improved Pregnancy Outcomes via Early Detection (IMPROvED).
During her time with UCC, Colleen moved to the Clinical Research Facility to continue her research career as a Clinical Nurse Manger involved in regulated clinical trials in Cork University Hospital before returning to Obstetrics department to run a pragmatic, multicentre, prospective, randomised controlled trial comparing two second-line tests in labour and evaluating the outcomes.
Her current responsibilities at NPEC include focusing on improving the quality of data collected using the electronic data capture system.
Dr Tamara Escañuela Sánchez
Tamara is a health psychology researcher that currently serves as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre (NPEC).
Prior to her research career, Tamara gained valuable experience in the field of psychology, which deepened her understanding of patient care and the dynamics of healthcare systems. Her academic journey, from a bachelor’s degree in psychology to a Master's in General Health Psychology, provides a strong foundation for her work at NPEC.
Tamara obtained her PhD in March 2023 at University College Cork which was conducted in collaboration between the Pregnancy Loss Research Group, the School of Public Health in UCC, the School of Psychology in NUI Galway and the NPEC. Her PhD, titled "The RELEVANT Study: Rethinking Stillbirth through behaviour change", was a significant milestone in her academic journey. It laid the foundation for her ongoing efforts to address behavioural risk factors associated with stillbirth.
Her current responsibilities at NPEC include leading a project to address behavioural risk factors for stillbirth, improving data management using electronic data capture, and implementing real-time data standardization in maternity units. She actively collaborates on qualitative and quantitative research projects, dissemination of research findings, and participates in the communication strategy of our organisation.
Professor Richard A. Greene
Professor Richard Greene, a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, gained much of his clinical experience in the Coombe Women's Hospital, Dublin. In July 1999, he took up a position as a Fellow in Maternal-Fetal Medicine in Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, USA. On his return to Ireland in 2001, he joined UCC as a Senior Lecturer/Consultant in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. In 2007, he took up his current posts as Director of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre (NPEC) and Professor of Clinical Obstetrics, UCC.
Prof. Greene was instrumental in commissioning and establishing the new maternity services at CUMH and continues to maintain a senior management position within the service. His research interests include: maternal-fetal medicine; epidemiology; health services research (incorporating risk management); quality of service; and translational research. The NPEC, under the guidance and leadership of Prof. Greene, continues to aim for improved clinical services for Irish patients.
"As Director of the NPEC, I am proud that the maternity services in Ireland are collecting data which can influence and improve patient care."
Prof. Greene has been involved in the development of a single, national chart for obstetrics and is centrally involved in the Maternal Newborn Clinical Management System (MN_CMS) Project (whereby a single, electronic medical record for all maternity hospitals is created). Prof. Greene is also committed to advancing the UCC Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology's goal of becoming a major research unit in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, at both a molecular and clinical level. Prof. Greene's clinical practice is undertaken at Cork University Maternity Hospital.
Roisin is a Research Assistant at NPEC, and is currently involved in data standardisation and quality assurance. She has a BSc (Hons) Health and Leisure (Exercise Science) from MTU and a MSc Public Health from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Jessica is a Clinical Research Officer with the National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre (NPEC), working on the Perinatal Mortality National Clinical Audit, the Severe Maternal Morbidity Audit and the Home Birth Audit. She is currently undertaking her MSc Research in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, which is examining the impact of deprivation on the risk of experiencing stillbirth.
Jessica obtained her BSc Midwifery from UCC and went on to work in the UK and Canada with experience in the following areas: labour ward and the high dependency unit, alongside birth centre, antenatal education, community and midwifery-led caseloading, and has a certificate in Maternity Complementary Therapies.
During her time in London, Jessica became Infant Feeding Lead and successfully achieved Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) accreditation. She then moved into a research role, working on various clinical research projects within the area of women and infants’ health. She became Lead Research Midwife on a large multicentre trial for her unit focused on pregnancy hypertension.
Sara is a researcher at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre (NPEC), working on national perinatal clinical audits and related research studies. She works on the NPEC's "Severe Maternal Morbidity" annual clinical audit and on the "Very Low Birth Weight Infant" audit (carried out in partnership with the Vermont Oxford Network).
Sara's portfolio includes both qualitative and quantitative research. She has a PhD. in Psychosocial Occupational Health and an MSc. in Occupational Health, both awarded by the School of Public Health in UCC.
Laura Díaz Luís is a Research Assistant at NPEC with a background in law and experience in retail management. In her role, she supports the development of NPEC’s communication and dissemination strategy and provides administrative assistance to ensure the team’s work is well-coordinated.
RGN, RM, HDip Clinical Practice, HDip Diagnostic Imaging in Ultrasound of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, MSc Health Care Ethics and Law.
Edel is the project manager for two of the NPEC national clinical audits of the maternity services in Ireland: Perinatal Mortality (PM) and Severe Maternal Morbidity (SMM). She has been intrinsic to the development and implementation of both these audits since she joined NPEC in 2009. Edel has fulfilled this role in conjunction with her role as co-ordinator for the maternal death enquiry (MDE) Ireland since its inception.
Dr Joye McKernan
Joye McKernan holds a BSc. in Social Science, a Masters in Epidemiology and Public Health and a HDip in Computer Science. Joye is the Research Officer - Information for the National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre. She works on a number of projects within the NPEC focusing on policy development, data quality and information standards. Joye also manages the collection and development of the Robson Ten Groups Classification System project. Joye is the project manager for the Postpartum haemorrhage Quality improvement initiative.
Prior to joining NPEC, Joye set up and developed "SMART Research Group". SMART Research Group was a business collaboration with fellow MPH graduates. SMART worked on a number of research projects including Cork Healthy Cities, Evaluation of the Breast Check Community Project and Food Mapping.
Joye completed her PhD in the area of "Data quality in the evolving digitised health service"
Indra is a Research Officer at the National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre (NPEC). Her main responsibilities are ensuring data quality, verification, and day-to-day data management of national perinatal clinical audits. Specifically, she works on analysing and reporting the data for the Perinatal Mortality National Clinical Audit, the Planned Home Births Ireland, and the National Therapeutic Hypothermia Audit. In NPEC, she is particularly interested in implementing online data capture systems (e.g., Castor EDC Software, RedCap EDC Software and using the HIPE database…) to optimise the quality of data collection and data analysis in clinical audits.
Indra holds a PhD awarded by the College of Medicine and Health at University College Cork in 2019 which was conducted in collaboration between The Pregnancy Loss Research Group and the NPEC. Her research interests include maternal and infant morbidities, pregnancy loss, risk factors and morbidities during pregnancy, and the optimisation of data quality in clinical audits and national health databases. Her PhD’s title was “An Exploration of dimensions of miscarriage events in the Republic of Ireland: incidence, management, risk factors, interventions and population's awareness of miscarriage”.
Indra obtained her BSc in Nursing from the University of Murcia (Spain) in 2010. She specialised in advanced epidemiology and public health by undertaking two master’s degree in Public Health and Epidemiology (University of Murcia and UCC). She also holds a professional master’s in education (PME) from the University of Murcia. Before joining NPEC, she obtained clinical experience as a nurse in Spain and Ireland, and she has been a Registered General Nurse in Ireland since 2016.
