Biography

Professor Keelin O’Donoghue is a medical graduate of University College Dublin and PhD Scholar of Imperial College London. She is an RCOG-trained Subspecialist in Maternal and Fetal Medicine, a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. Keelin has been a Consultant Obstetrician/Senior Lecturer at CUMH and University College Cork since 2007 and was awarded promotion to Professor in UCC in 2020.

Keelin was national specialty-training director for the RCPI’s higher specialist training scheme in Obstetrics and Gynaecology from 2020-2025 and was appointed to RCPI Council in 2025. She has led implementation for the HSE’s National Standards for Bereavement Care following pregnancy loss and perinatal death since 2017. She is now (2021-) Clinical Lead for Guideline Development in Maternity & Gynaecology at the HSE’s National Women and Infants Health Programme.

At UCC, Keelin is lead for Obstetric Research in the INFANT Research Centre.  She leads the award-winning Pregnancy Loss Research Group, combining supervising a large group of clinicians, researchers, students and advocates with collaborative clinical research. Funding includes awards from Philanthropy, Research Ireland, Irish Research Council and the Health Research Board. She was awarded the Distinguished Researcher Award by the International Stillbirth Alliance in 2023 and the PLRG were awarded UCC’s Research Team of the Year in 2022.

Keelin has authored/co-authored a large, and diverse, range of outputs adding to the knowledge base in pregnancy loss, perinatal death, termination of pregnancy, fetal medicine and multiple pregnancy.  Keelin’s work has resulted in >250 peer-reviewed original papers and >390 published conference proceedings (h-index 2026; 63). Outputs include peer-reviewed journal articles with a significant research impact, oral/poster presentations, research reports, invited commentaries, book chapters, newspaper/magazine articles, as well as additional publications with clinical impact in the speciality, such as National Reports, National Practice Standards and National Clinical Practice Guidelines for Obstetrics and Gynaecology.