Dr Siobhain O'Mahony delivers College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland annual Francis Rynd Lecture

30 May 2024

Dr Siobhain O'Mahony, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, Principal Investigator in APC Microbiome Ireland, and an awardee of an Honorary Fellowship from the College of Anaesthesiologists Ireland was selected to deliver the annual Francis Rynd Lecture at the College of Anaesthesiologists Annual Congress in University College Dublin on the 24^th of May 2024.

Siobhain's Lecture entitled "The Microbiome in Pain Medicine: Molecular Mechanisms to Therapeutic Potential" included discussion of her latest publication. Siobhain described how the gut microbiota can be used to predict persistent post-operative pain following breast cancer surgery. This work by Dr O'Mahony in collaboration with Professor George Shorten, has been published in Scientific Reports https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38811609/

Photo from left. Dr John Browne, Consultant Pain Specialist, Cork University Hospital, Marymount Hospice & South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital, Mr Martin McCormack, Chief Executive Officer, College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland, Dr Siobhain O'Mahony, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience and Principal Investigator in APC Microbiome Ireland, Dr Hugh Gallagher, Chair of the Faculty of Pain Medicine, College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland and Professor George Shorten, Professor of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine University College Cork and President College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland. 

The session was sponsored by St Vincent's Anaesthesia Foundation.

Siobhain has worked in the area of the microbiome and pain for nearly 20 years and focuses on visceral pain including endometriosis. She is a long-standing member of the Irish Pain Society and organised the Irish Pain Society Annual Meeting in UCC in October 2023 which was the largest attended meeting in the history of the Society.

Now in its 12 year the Francis Rynd Lecture is a central component of the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Faculty of Pain Medicine. Dr Francis Rynd was a surgeon at the Meath Hospital, who developed the first device to deliver medication by injection in 1844 and whose concept was later adapted to become the modern hypodermic syringe. Furthermore the patient who received the first injection of morphine creosote was suffering from intractable facial pain and was in essence the first patient suffering from chronic pain anywhere to receive an interventional pain procedure to relieve their pain.

Links:

https://cai.foleon.com/congress/programme-2023-copy-1/programme-friday-24th-may-2024

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38811609/

Irish Pain Society Annual Meeting 2023:

https://www.ucc.ie/en/anatomy/news/newsarchive2023/dr-siobhain-omahony-hosts-irish-pain-society-annual-scientific-meeting-.html