Last Friday, the School of Medicine celebrated students academic achievements at the annual prize giving. 

Dr Orlaith O' Donovan was presented the award by Prof Deirdre Murray for the RGG Barry prize.  The prize is awarded to a candidate who has obtained one of the highest marks in paediatrics at the Final Medical Examination.  The award is made by the Extern Examiner in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health.  

Ms Réiltín Werner and Dr Aoife Dempsey

The Final Medical class of 1990 subscribed to a fund for the provision of an annual Aodán Ó Donnchadha Memorial Prize to commemorate their late classmate Aodán Ó Donnchadha. Ms Réiltín Werner, sister of Mr Aodan O'Donnchadha, presented the award to Dr Aoife Dempsey and Dr Caoimhe Cronin, joint winners this year. This award goes to the student with one of the top projects.   

The Department is delighted to announce that Dr Andrea Bowe has won Publication of the Year at the recent COMH Postgraduate Research Student Awards.  

Andrea was nominated by her supervisor, Professor Deirdre Murray, for her publication in the journal JAMA Network Open in 2023 entitled ‘Prediction of 2-Year Cognitive Outcomes in Very Preterm Infants Using Machine Learning Methods’

This award is for the best publication by a PGR student as a first author (or joint authors if joint first) from work undertaken while registered as a postgraduate student in the College of Medicine and Health.

Prof Tony Ryan dedicated his life to medicine, education, and the betterment of his community. His recent passing in 2023 was a tremendous loss to the Department of Paediatrics & Child Health at UCC and to the academic community as a whole. His contributions as a clinician, educator, scholar and trailblazer will forever be remembered.

This year, 16 doctoral bursaries were awarded to students, out of which 3 were funded by the Infant Research Centre for affiliated students. We are pleased to announce that Dr. Anne Murray and Ms. Sarah Fenton were among the recipients of these awards.  

The purpose of these awards is to facilitate the training of students who wish to acquire skills that are essential for their academic development, but which they cannot otherwise receive in UCC and to facilitate students who wish to present their work at an international conference.  These awards are also aligned with UCC's Strategic Plan in research and innovation and global engagement.  

We would like to congratuate all awardees, especially our post graduate students.  

Meet Prof Velasco a renowned Pediatrician and Emergency Medicine Specialist. Dr. Velasco completed their Doctorate in Medicine from the University of Valladolid, followed by a specialization in Pediatrics at the Hospital Universitario Río Hortega in Valladolid.

Since 2009, he has dedicated their career to Pediatric Emergency Medicine and currently works at the Hospital Universitari Parc Tauli in Sabadell, Spain. With a special research interest, Prof Velasco has published over 50 papers on febrile infants and has completed a Postgraduate Master of Research Methodology in Health Sciences at the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona.

He is a member of the Research Network of the Spanish Society of Pediatric Emergency Medicine and the Research in Emergency Pediatric Emergency Medicine. He holds the prestigious position of Chair of the Evaluation Committee of the Spanish Society of Pediatric Emergency Medicine. 

Prof Velasco is collaborating with the Department to develop and take the lead as a module coordinator in our Postgraduate taught program, MSc Paediatrics & Child Health. His contribution will also be instrumental in providing postgraduate support for research, statistical analysis, tutorials and lectures. Moreover, he has expressed his willingness to provide support for undergraduate lectures. Dr. Velasco's expertise and experience will prove to be valuable assets to the program, and we look forward to working with him to achieve our shared academic goals.

Prof Aoife Waters is a specialist in children’s kidney disease with 20 years working in tertiary paediatric centres in Ireland, UK and Canada and within Nephrology, for 15 years. Following a family re-location to Cork, the scope of practice now includes General Paediatrics whilst maintaining a specialist interest in nephrology and disorders of the glomerular filtration barrier.

Prof Waters has been a principal investigator on clinical trials for new therapies for glomerular diseases and works collaboratively with colleagues for rare renal diseases. The latter includes delineating the cause and understanding the mechanism through active international collaborations. Research funding awarded by the Medical Research Council and Kidney Research UK  has supported the identification of novel syndromes associated with nephrotic syndrome.  Supporting cross-sector collaborations to drive innovation and improve therapeutics for diseases with high unmet needs is the current focus.

It is with great pleasure that we announce Professor Waters' collaboration with the Department to assist in subspecialty teaching in Nephrology, research, and mentorship. The primary objective of this collaboration is to enhance the quality of education and research in the field of Nephrology, while also promoting professional development and growth among students and researchers. 

We would like to congratulate Dr Louise Gibson on receiving a National Excellence Teaching Award  at the recent RCPI 2023 Faculty of Paediatrics Autumn Conference 

We are thrilled to announce that our Chair of Paediatrics has been appointed as the new Chair in Early Brain Injury and Cerebral Palsy. This initiative is part of a new programme that aims to revolutionize the delivery of cerebral palsy care in Ireland. In May, the Cerebral Palsy Foundation (CPF) named UCC as one of three new clinical and research hubs, which will help establish Ireland as a global leader in Cerebral Palsy (CP) care and research. As part of the programme, CPF is investing €1.6 million to advance research in early brain injury and cerebral palsy at the Irish Centre for Maternal and Child Health Research (INFANT), UCC.

Professor Deirdre Murray said: “I am very honoured to assume the role of Chair in Early Brain Injury and Cerebral Palsy. This signifies an important step forward and I am committed to leading our research efforts at INFANT in partnership with the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, to make Ireland a leading country for research into early brain injury and more importantly to improve health outcomes for children with cerebral palsy and their families.”

Recently, our department organized a visit for paediatric patients and staff at Cork University Hospital to the apiary located on Cork University Hospital campus. The purpose of the visit was to educate the kids about bees and their role in our ecosystem. In preparation for the visit, the kids painted signs for the apiary site, and on the day of the visit, they were provided with bee suits to ensure their safety while interacting with the bees.

Dr Anda Dumitrescu, Paediatric Clinical Lecturer and Head Beekeeper, mentioned that such visits are a great opportunity for the kids to learn about bee hives and how they work in a safe environment. It also helps to reduce anxiety that some may have around bees. It was a fun and educational experience for all involved, and we hope to continue with such initiatives in the future.

On the 9th May 2023, UCC Department of Paediatrics collaborated with CUH for Green Week highlighting the importance of bees to our environment and talking about the beehives on CUH campus.

Sonia Lenehan has been awarded the College of Medicine and Health Post Graduate Student EDI award 2023 for her exemplary commitment to promoting equality and diversity. 

Alumni and Development along with UCC’s College of Medicine and Health were delighted to welcome Mary Martin, ALK Senior Manager Sales Ireland to UCC earlier this month to discuss the ongoing partnership between ALK and UCC and to acknowledge the company’s 100-year anniversary.

UCC Department of Paediatrics and Child Health are delighted to hold a GP paediatric educational event on the 24th May 2023.

Ms. Caoimhe Cronin, a medical student and researcher was presented first place award at the recent IAAI Conference

Professor Blandina Theophil Mmbaga is Adjunct Professor at University College Cork’s Department of Paediatrics and Child Health since February 2020.   Unfortunately due to the covid pandemic, Prof Mmbaga's inugural lecture was cancelled in Feburary 2020 but we are delighted to announce that she will deliver her Inaugural Lecture as Adjunct Professor at the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health on Tuesday March 21^st at 2pm.

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School of Medicine Prize Giving Ceremony - Academic Year 2021-2022

Meet the students who received the Paediatric  RGG Barry Prize  and Aodán Ó Donnchadha Prize 

Professor Walsh joined the Department in December 2022 as Associate Professor of Neonatology.  

Professor Walsh’s research has focused on newborns at high risk of cerebral injury. In particular he has studied different methods for the early identification of brain injury, and also in optimizing neuro-protection strategies, to hopefully improve their outcomes.

Professor Walsh graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 2004. He was awarded a Molecular Medicine Ireland Clinician Scientist Fellowship in 2009, and studied the ability for early blood biological markers to determine the severity of Hypoxic Ischaemic Encephalopathy in newborns. He was awarded his PhD for this work by UCC in 2014. He completed his neonatal training, working first as a Fellow, and then Chief Fellow, on the Harvard Neonatal Perinatal Fellowship Program. Following fellowship he became an Attending Neonatologist in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, with an academic appointment to Harvard Medical School, before returning to Cork as a Consultant Neonatologist.

His current research includes leading a multi-site project to improve the early detection of cerebral palsy in Ireland, and is also the site lead for two multi-centre neuro-protection studies for newborns with HIE.

 If you or someone you know are interested in upskilling, please read on!

In order to meet the demand for dynamic multidisciplinary healthcare models, UCC's School of Medicine and Department of Paediatrics and Child Health has designed a programme in allergy and clinical immunology.

Whether you decide to earn your PG Certificate, PG Diploma, or MSc, you will gain invaluable knowledge and skills that you can immediately put into practice in support of your community. We understand how busy healthcare professionals' schedules are, which is why these programmes are online, flexible, and part-time.

• Enhance your career in allgery & clinical immunology
• Learn about reserach in allergy & clinical immunology
• Improve your knowledge from exerts in the field.

Your postgrad, your way. 

More Information: Allergy & Clinical Immunology Online

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We are delighted to announce that Professor Colin Hawkes has been appointed as Associate Professor of Paediatrics at University College Cork and Principal Investigator in the INFANT Centre. Professor Hawkes is a leading expert in paediatric endocrinology and has published over 100 research papers and book chapters in the field. He brings expertise in type 1 diabetes, childhood growth, and hormone disorders in children to the INFANT Centre.

 Professor Hawkes graduated from University College Cork in 2007 and his PhD was also awarded by UCC, for research focused on disorders of growth in childhood. He completed Paediatric Endocrinology training at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and was appointed as an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Over his seven years in Philadelphia, he established a leading clinical research programme that has identified new causes of endocrine diseases and treatments.

 His current research is focussed on improving outcomes for children with type 1 diabetes, and on finding a cure for this disease. In the coming years, he will establish Cork as a leading clinical research centre for children with type 1 diabetes and other endocrine disorders.

In June 2022 Dr Dumitrescu,Clinical Lecturer presented her findings from a cross-sectional study entitled ‘Lessons learned during a pandemic: Perceptions of medical students in an Irish university of newly revised Paediatric blended learning’ at the COMH Teaching & Learning Showcase.   A total of 162 fourth-year medical students participated in the study. The study showed that blended learning is successful as a teaching and learning approach. The main themes that surfaced were importance of structure of the module and interaction of students with peers and tutors.

The recommendations for future teaching and learning are to build a module with an outstanding structure, with good balance of onsite and online elements, interconnected and timetabled together. This format needs to be adjusted to include the most beneficial elements for each curriculum.

The Department of Paediatrics & Child Health is delighted to welcome Dr. Juan Trujillo to the Department.  Dr Trujillo is the Programme Director for the new Allergy and Clinical Immunology Postgraduate Programme. 

Dr Trujillo is a lead Investigator at the INFANT Research Centre and a Consultant Paediatric Allergist in Cork University Hospital.  He  trained in Paediatric Allergy and pulmonology in Corporacio Sanitari Parc Tauli Hospital Sabadell (Barcelona, Spain). He is a member of the European academy of allergy and clinical immunology (EAACI), Irish Association of Allergy and Immunology, British Society for Allergy & Clinical Immunology (BSACI), Spanish society of paediatric asthma allergy and clinical immunology (SEICAP).