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The HIRH are delighted to host two events on 21 May within the School of Public Health.  Both events will take place in the Western Gateway Building between 11am and 2pm.  

On 12 February 2026, we had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Claire Kerins for an online seminar introducing the updated CFIR User Guide. 

Laura Jane McCarthy was delighted to present her poster “Women's experiences of shared decision-making in perimenopause consultations in general practice: A protocol for a qualitative study,” at the 12th annual SPHeRE conference in Dublin.

A collaboration among members of the Health Implementation Research Hub, led by Sheena McHugh, and international implementation scientists has resulted in the publication of an updated Cochrane systematic review entitled “” in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

In 2025, the National Screening Service (NSS) commissioned ����1000���� College Cork researchers Dr Aoife O’Mahony and Dr Sheena McHugh to deliver a rapid evidence review to inform strategies for improving HPV vaccination uptake among underserved populations, including migrant, Roma, and Traveller communities. The consultancy aimed to generate actionable insights within a tight timeframe to support national programme planning. 

Laura Jane McCarthy, as part of the organisation team for the UCC PPI PhD Symposium, shares her reflections on the annual event. 

In June, Dr Aoife O’Mahony travelled to Canada to visit the (CPCR) at the . The CPCR brings together interdisciplinary teams of scientists, clinicians, and methodologists to improve health outcomes through implementation science, clinical trials, and meta-research. 

Madison Curran has joined the Health Implementation Research Hub (HIRH) as a research assistant.

Eoin Riordan, Sina Calasan and Tarun Das join the HIRH team for the summer.

The research focused on understanding the factors that shape attendance at diabetes education programmes.

On October 25th, 2024, the School of Public Health, University College Cork, hosted a diabetes healthcare knowledge exchange event, aimed at fostering connections and co-operation among diabetes healthcare professionals.  

Dr Aoife O’Mahony has been awarded an Evidence Synthesis Ireland’s Study Within a Review Award (2024). This award will support the conduct of a methodological study, entitled ‘Exploring discrepancies between protocols and published scoping reviews: what differs and why?’

On 2 July the Health Implementation Research Hub (HIRH) hosted a networking seminar entitled “Bringing Best Practices from Implementation Science to P�������پ�����”. The event was attended by academics and researchers from across UCC as well as attendees from the Health Service Executive and the charity sector.  

The Implementation Science Training Institute (ISTI) took place at Nano Nagle Place from July 1st to 3rd hosted by Dr Sheena McHugh and the research team from the Health Implementation Research Hub at UCC’s School of Public Health.   

Both researchers are working with Dr Sheena McHugh within the CUSTOMISE Project

Aoife has a PhD from the ����1000���� of Cardiff. Her areas of expertise include evidence synthesis, research integrity and open science.

David joins the team as a Post Doc researcher working on the Applied Partnership Award 'Optimising practice feedback to improve diabetes care'

This perspective piece discusses the conceptual tensions and practical trade-offs in tailoring implementation interventions.

Jane will join the team as a Postdoctoral Researcher working on the CUSTOMISE project, funded by a HRB Research Leader Award.

Laura-Jane will join the team as a Research Assistant working on the CUSTOMISE project, funded by a HRB Research Leader Award.

As part of this project we explored experiences of the structured diabetes education programme, Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating (DAFNE), among people with type 1 diabetes, and how DAFNE graduates experienced the Covid-19 pandemic.

On 21st July the Health Implementation Research Hub were delighted to host a seminar entitled “Implementation Mapping: An approach to selecting and tailoring implementation strategies”, delivered by Bryon Powell.

The Implementation Science Training Institute (ISTI) took place at Nano Nagle Place from July 5 to 7 as part the activities of the Health Implementation Research Hub at UCC’s School of Public Health.  

Twenty-four PhD students, researchers, academics, and practitioners from the Irish health service learned about the relatively new field of implementation research. 

Aoibheann who will be starting the final year of the BSc Public Health Sciences this year is a recipient of the HRB Summer Student Scholarship Award (2022).

Aoibheann is undertaking the 8-week scholarship under the supervision of Dr Fiona Riordan. Over the course of the scholarship, Aoibheann will work on a project entitled “The Experiences of individuals living with diabetes during Covid-19: A photovoice project”. 

The project will explore the experiences of individuals living with diabetes during Covid-19, including the challenges faced in terms of self-managing the condition in the face of disruption to health services. The project also aims to document the impact of attending structured diabetes education programme, Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating (DAFNE), on the lives of people with diabetes, to better understand the benefits of such programmes and the process of adopting the programme principles in every-day life, particularly throughout the pandemic.

A community-based participatory approach, called photovoice, whereby participants take photographs of important and meaningful aspects of their lives and explain their significance, will be used to offer an insight into the reality of living with diabetes during the pandemic. The project outputs will serve as a resource to raise awareness about diabetes management during Covid-19 and to highlight the role of education programmes like DAFNE.

Claire will join the team as a Postdoctoral Researcher on the CUSTOMISE (Comparing and Understanding Tailoring Methods for Implementation Strategies) project, funded by a HRB Research Leader Award. She is also in the final stages of her PhD with the HRB SPHeRE (Structured Population Health and Health Services Research Education) Programme. Previously, Claire was the Lead Specialist Dietitian for the National Institute for Preventive Cardiology (NIPC) based in the Croí Heart and Stroke Centre, Galway. 

Eimear will work with the team on an update of the Cochrane review . During her 12-month fellowship Eimear will be co-mentored by Dr Sheena McHugh (UCC) Lead Investigator of HIRH and Professor and NHMRC Investigator Fellow based in the ����1000���� of Newcastle, Australia. Eimear is supported by the Irish Health Research Board and the HSC Public Health Agency (Grant number ESI-2021-001) in association with Evidence Synthesis Ireland/Cochrane Ireland

The paper outlines how we explored the acceptability and feasibility of the study procedures used in a cluster randomised pilot trial of an intervention in primary care to improve uptake of Ireland’s national diabetic retinopathy programme. 

The Irish Implementation Science Training Institute 2022, is a training course in implementation science, hosted by the newly formed Health Implementation Research Hub at the School of Public Health, ����1000���� College Cork.

The paper outlines how we investigated the feasibility and preliminary effects of an intervention to improve uptake of Ireland’s national diabetic retinopathy programme, Diabetic RetinaScreen, among patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

Michelle McNamara is a PhD student on CUSTOMISE (Comparing and Understanding Tailoring Methods for Implementation Strategies) funded by the HRB Research Leader Award. She is also a student on the four-year HRB SPHeRE programme (Structured Population Health and Health-services Research Education).

The research note outlines the acceptability and feasibility of study procedures used as part of the IDEAs cluster randomised pilot trial of an intervention in primary care to improve uptake of Ireland’s national diabetic retinopathy programme. 

Daire has started on an eight-week Trial Methodology Research Network Summer Scholarship.

Dr Susan Calnan presented findings from the APA Falls Project at the Association of ����1000���� Departments of General Practice in Ireland (AUDGPI) Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) Joint Scientific Meeting which was held virtually on the 12^th and 13^th of March.  

Dr Sheena McHugh has been named as one of five new Research Leaders by the Health Research Board

Dr Sheena McHugh (Principal Investigator) and Dr Fiona Riordan (Co-investigator) have been awarded funding to conduct a project in partnership with Friendly Call Cork/Cork City Partnership.

The paper outlines how we retrospectively costed the development of the IDEAs intervention, a multifaceted intervention in primary care to improve attendance at diabetic retinopathy screening. 

• FOODPATH is an initiative dedicated to identifying and addressing the determinants of food-related inequalities in Europe.
• The €1.6 million project includes partners from six European countries and is led by Dr Janas Harrington in the School of Public Health at UCC.
• FOODPATH will provide the necessary structural changes to ensure all European citizens, regardless of socioeconomic status, can make healthier food choices.