News
Welcome to our HIRH Summer Students
Eoin Riordan, Sina Calasan and Tarun Das join the HIRH team for the summer.
Eoin Riordan, student on the BSc Public Health Sciences
Eoin has commenced an eight-week summer studentship with the Health Implementation Research Hub (HIRH). Eoin has just completed his 12-week work placement at Trnava University, Slovakia, and is now entering his final year of the BSc in Public Health Sciences at University College Cork (UCC). This programme provides students with a comprehensive foundation in public health, focusing on the knowledge and skills required to protect and promote population health.
During this studentship, Eoin will contribute to the CUSTOMISE project (Comparing and Understanding Tailoring Methods for Implementation Strategies in Healthcare) funded by the HRB Research Leader Award. The aim of CUSTOMISE is to understand the process and impact of tailoring change strategies to support the uptake of evidence-based interventions in healthcare. Under the supervision of Dr Ana Contreras Navarro and Dr Aoife O’Mahony, Eoin will contribute to ongoing evidence syntheses. He will be involved in a range of tasks, including screening abstracts; extracting data from eligible studies; managing and analysing descriptive survey data; supporting data management for qualitative transcripts and memos. In addition, Eoin will assist with a Study Within a Review (SWAR) led by Dr Aoife O’Mahony. This project explores discrepancies between published scoping reviews and their original protocols within the field of implementation science.
Sina Calasan studying for a Master of Public Health (MPH) at the School of Public Health
Project: CUSTOMISE
Sina has joined the HIRH as a summer student and will work under the supervision of Dr. Aoife O’Mahony. She is a Master of Public Health (MPH) Student, currently conducting a systematic review as part of her dissertation project. Previously, she completed her bachelor’s degree in health economics (B.Sc.) in her home country, Germany. Over the course of the summer, she will work on the HPV Vaccine Project assisting with a rapid review of available literature. The project aims to identify barriers to HPV vaccine uptake among vulnerable groups and strategies to improve participation among these groups. The project is funded by and in collaboration with the National Screening Service (NSS).
Tarun Das, studying medicine at UCC
Project: Optimising practice feedback to improve diabetes care (OPTI AUDIT-GP) funded by the HRB Applied Partnership Award
Tarun Das is a final-year medical student at University College Cork. Originally from Bangkok, Thailand, he developed a strong interest in public health at the age of 17 when he had the opportunity to explore the impact of poverty on prenatal development. This early exposure sparked a deep curiosity that he carried into his final-year project as part of his medical course, where he used real-world health data to investigate the effects of hypertensive disorders in pregnancy (HDP) on cognitive outcomes in offspring.
Tarun is particularly excited to contribute to the APA study on audit and feedback for general practice staff delivering diabetes care. Diabetes is a condition that is central to the training in the medical course, where students learn the importance of prevention, early recognition, screening, and adherence to evidence-based guidelines. This opportunity aligns perfectly with his drive to support meaningful, data-informed improvements in healthcare delivery.