Research Overview

The multidisciplinary nature of the department is reflected in the diversity of our research interests. Our overall focus is on issues of public health concern and on clinical problems encountered in general practice. Our Head of Department also has a role within the Health Service Executive as a Consultant in Public Health Medicine, with a particular remit in the fields of alcohol and illicit drug use. These are problems which also impact on the clinical practice of general practitioner members of staff and the health related problems of alcohol use in particular have become central to our research agenda.

Type 2 diabetes is a growing problem in Ireland and elsewhere in the developed world and is becoming an increasing burden on our health services at all levels. Our current research on diabetes looks at the psycho-social model to seek innovative ways to improve the outcomes for people with type 2 diabetes.

With SAHRU (Small Area Health Research Unit) as an integral part of the department, we are enabled to carry out research taking a spatial view of the health problem being measured. SAHRU has also developed a deprivation index, widely used by researchers and health service planners in Ireland.

Professor Tom O’Dowd is one of the directors of the health spoke of the National Longitudinal Study of Children in Ireland or Growing up in Ireland (GUI) as it is now known. The GUI will provide a rich source of data for researchers on 9-month old and 9-year old children and their families on an Ireland wide basis.

This department is one of three participating partners in the recently awarded HRB Health Research Centre for Primary Care, with RCSI being the lead institution. Under the umbrella of this Centre we will focus on patients with multimorbidity. Treating patients with multimorbidity is well recognised as difficult and we hope to improve the healthcare and outcomes for patients suffering multiple health problems. We are beginning our research by tapping the experience and knowledge of primary care physicians and pharmacy and hospital colleagues, in order to identify gaps in service provision and potential solutions.

Professor Shane Allwright, an epidemiologist, chaired the committee on exposure to second hand smoke in the workplace and the resulting report informed the Minister for Health and Children’s decision to bring in the workplace smoking ban in 2004. She subsequently conducted research into the health of Irish bar workers before and after the ban, and the health effects of tobacco use, or exposure to tobacco, continue to be researched in this department.