Our Team
Dr. Oisin O’Connell is a respiratory consultant in the Bon Secours Hospital Cork, an Honorary Senior Medical Lecturer in UCC and Honorary Assistant Professor of Medicine UCD. He completed his undergraduate medical degree in UCC (graduating 2003), before undertaking postgraduate medical specialist training between Ireland, North America and Australasia. He is former Vice President of the Irish Hospital Consultant Association 2016-2018. Oisin has a special interest in medical technology and medical innovation to support unmet needs of clinicians. One of these unmet needs in Higher Medical education is a resource to identify local, national and international training opportunities among NCHDs & Clinicians.
Dr Dorothy Breen is a Consultant in Intensive Care and Clinical Lead for Quality in Cork University Hospital. She has previously worked as the Director of Education at the ASSERT simulation centre at University College Cork and as a consultant in Intensive Care at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney. She has been the PI in Cork and Sydney for several multi-centre clinical trials. Her interests include simulation, clinical communication, sepsis, acute deterioration as well other aspects of Quality and Safety. She co-chaired the guideline development group for the National Clinical Guideline on Communication in Acute and Children's Hospital Services in Ireland.
Dr. Catherine Nix is a Consultant Anaesthetist Intensivist at the University of Limerick Hospitals Group (ULHG) since August 2014. Catherine is the current Joint Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine Ireland (JFICMI) Point of Care Ultrasound Lead and has participated in authoring their curriculum document for PoCUS. She is the Irish Representative on the FUSIC (Focused US Intensive Care) UK Committee. Catherine holds an Adjunct Senior Lecturer position at UL GEMS. She co-founded the University of Toronto Undergraduate Ultrasound Program with Dr Jonathon Ailon in 2012. She has been teaching PoCUS at UL GEMS since 2015 and was scuppered temporarily by Covid until she discovered the art of teaching while wearing a facemask.
Dr Ger O'Connor graduated from University College Cork in 2003, completing his IMRCS in Cork University Hospital before training in Emergency Medicine in some of the busiest emergency centres in Ireland. A Fellow of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, he has extensive experience in acute and emergency medicine, ultrasound, geriatric emergency medicine, sports medicine, critical care and trauma. He is an examiner at FRCEM and MRCEM level. Other areas of interest include Simulation medical training & Major incidents and CBRNE preparedness.
Dr David McSharry is an Acute Medical Assessment Unit Consultant in the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin. He graduated from medicine in UCG in 1998, before completing higher specialist training in Ireland in Respiratory and Internal Medicine. He subsequently trained in Harvard Medical Hospital groups with a special interest in Sleep medicine. He currently works as an AMAU consultant but maintains a special interest in sleep medicine, lung transplant medicine and ongoing management of respiratory patients.
Dr Mike Harrison is a graduate of NUI Galway and completed his training in Respiratory and GIM on the Irish HST scheme. After completion of training, he undertook a Fellowship in the Cambridge Centre for Lung infection at Royal Papworth University Hospital, Cambridge. He was appointed as Consultant at Papworth in 2016 before appointment to a Respiratory Consultant Post at Galway University Hospital in 2019. He has a specialist interest in airways disease and pulmonary infections.
Prof Michaela Higgins is a Consultant Medical Oncologist at the St Vincent’s University Hospital with specialty interest in breast cancer. She was appointed as a University College Dublin (UCD) Clinical Professor in 2015. Prof. Higgins graduated from UCD Medical School and trained in Ireland before completing a three year fellowship in Medical Oncology in Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, USA. She was then appointed as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Attending (Consultant) Physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston (2010 – 2014). Prof. Higgins has led numerous national and international clinical trials for patients with cancer, has been awarded multiple competitive grants and has published widely in the field. She is heavily involved in education and training of young doctors.
Dr Nóirín Russell, MD, MRCOG, MRCPI, is a medical graduate of University College Cork (2000) and a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (2020) and member of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists (2011). She received her MD in Obstetrics and Gynaecology from the University College Dublin in 2010. She was awarded CSCST by the Irish Committee on Higher Training in 2013 and has been on the Medical Council’s register of medical specialists since then. She completed the RCOG/RCR Diploma in advanced Obstetric Ultrasound in 2007 and pursued further speciality training at Necker Enfants Malades Hôpital and Descartes University in Paris 2011-2012. Nóirín took up a post as Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist and Clinical Senior Lecturer at Cork University Maternity Hospital and University College Cork in 2014. She was appointed lead colposcopist at University Hospital Kerry later that year. In 2020, she joined the National Screening Service as the Clinical Director of Cervical Check. Nóirín’s research has resulted in >20 peer-reviewed original papers and >80 published conference proceedings. Nóirín’s research interests include general and high risk obstetric care, cervical cancer screening, patient safety and staff engagement. She is also interested in the accessible communication of healthcare information and how the process of shared decision making between patients and doctors optimises medical care. She is a member of the British Maternal and Fetal Medicine Society and the British Society of Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology and is an accredited BSCCP colposcopist. Nóirín is also committed to undergraduate and postgraduate training and is passionate about providing excellent obstetric and gynaecological care for women in Ireland.
Prof Karen Redmond, MB BCh BAO MD FRCS CTh, is a consultant Thoracic & Lung Transplant Surgeon in the Mater Misericordia University Hospital, Beacon and Blackrock Hospital where she specialises in the surgical management of patients with lung cancer, end-stage lung disease (emphysema and pulmonary fibrosis), lung transplantation and a range of other prevalent conditions including complex airway and pectus conditions. For further information please visit www.ctsnet.org/home/kredmond . She was instrumental in bringing the technique of ex-vivo lung percussion lung reconditioning into Ireland to increase the number of successful transplants in Ireland.
Mr Arun Thomas, BSc; LRCP & SI, MB, BCh, BAO (Hons); IMRCS; MCh; PgDipHSc; FRCS(Urol), is a graduate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) Medical School where he studied both basic and higher surgical training in Urology. Following this Mr Thomas graduated with Master of Surgery (MCh) from Trinity College Dublin. Mr Thomas completed his fellowship in Urological Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston Texas, United States, before returning to Ireland as a consultant Urologist in Tallaght University Hospital.
Mr Fardod O’Kelly is a Consultant Paediatric, Adolescent and Adult Congenital Urologist working in both the Beacon Hospital and Mater Private Dublin. He graduated from RCSI and subsequently undertook a Doctorate in Medicine from Trinity in 2010 in the field of prostate cancer epigenetics. He pursued sub-specialist training in paediatric and adolescent urology in Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin. He completed paediatric, adolescent and transitional urology in Canada at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) in Ottawa (Complex Reconstruction; Functional Urology; Minimally Invasive Surgery), and at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto (Complex Reconstruction, GU Cancer, Renal Transplantation). He has written over 70 peer-reviewed academic manuscripts, 8 book chapters, and is a reviewer for over 15 journals as well as being awarded a global Top-10 reviewer for the Journal of Paediatric Urology (2020). He has created a paediatric urology podcast show (Circumsessions) in conjunction with the Journal for Pediatric Urology, and sits on the paediatric urology working group of the European Association of Urology (EAU) and on the EAU taskforce for Equality, Inclusion and Diversity.
Dr Pat O’Connor is a cardiology registrar in the Cork University Hospital and completed his undergraduate medical training at University College Cork where he developed a passion for endurance sports and for the assessment of VO2 max testing. He has completed a number of ultra-endurance events himself including rowing across the Atlantic as part of the Talisker Rowing Challenge, cycling Mazen to Mizen in under 24hrs in aid of Pieta House and getting a bronze medal in the world kick boxing championships. His specialist areas of interest in cardiology include heart failure and advanced cardiac imaging. He has a passion for teaching and for fixing things.
Darragh Gogarty works as an anaesthesiologist with a background in biomechanical engineering. He has a keen interest in education, novel device development and perioperative medication optimisation. Darragh has been teaching for over 20 years and is delighted to be part of the HospitalBuddy medical education family. .
Seán is a Paediatric SpR with a special interest in Paediatric Emergency Medicine. He also has a keen interest in doctors’ health and wellbeing, having chaired the RCPI Health & Wellbeing Committee for the last two years (2019-2021), and he currently co-chairs the National Doctors' Health & Wellbeing Committee of Ireland (2021-). By joining the Hospital Buddy app team, he hopes to share medical resources that will make day-to-day clinical life easier for doctors at all levels and across all specialities. He also hopes to share health and wellbeing resources which can help doctors to identify available supports and better manage mental and physical health, both for themselves and for their colleagues. For Seán, this app represents an opportunity to build a greater sense of community and collegiality amongst doctors in Ireland.