Medicine

Contact Us School of Medicine
Level 1
Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute
Trinity College
152-160 Pearse Street
Dublin 2

View the contact page for more contact and location information

medadmin@tcd.ie

Current Projects

Evaluation of Dyadic Psychoeducational Interventions for People with Advanced Cancer and their Informal Caregivers (DIAdIC): An international randomized controlled trial

(Trinity PI: Professor Charles Normand; Funding: European Commission)
This is a six-country trial led by Vrije Universiteit Brussel (PI: Professor Joachim Cohen).  The PaCE team led by Professor Normand is responsible for the economic evaluation work package.
For more details, click here

The BETTER-B Main Trial: An International, Multicentre, Randomised Controlled Pragmatic Phase III Trial of Mirtazapine to alleviate Breathlessness in Palliative and End of Life Care

(Trinity PI: Professor Charles Normand; Funding: European Commission)
This is a five-country trial led by King’s College London (PI: Professor Irene Higginson). 

The PaCE team led by Professor Normand is responsible for the economic evaluation work package.
For more details, contact us at ssmith1@tcd.ie

Palliative and end-of-life care data in Ireland: establishing the state of the nation, mapping future direction

(PI: Dr Peter May; Funding: Health Research Board)

Improving palliative and end-of-life care requires good data on current practices. However, we currently know little about the end-of-life phase in Ireland: where people die, what health care they use, how family and friends provide unpaid care, and how palliative care shapes these experiences. This project aims to improve knowledge and understanding of these questions.  In collaboration with the HSE, Irish Hospice Foundation, HIPE and the All Ireland Institute for Hospice and Palliative Care. This project has a dedicated website with much more information about the aims and outputs of the project and with useful links.

For more details, contact pemay@tcd.ie

Economics of palliative care: from international evidence to Irish policy

(PI: Dr Peter May; Funding: Health Research Board)
The aim of this project is to build a demographic/economic microsimulation model to predict the future older population in Ireland using TILDA data, and to evaluate policy options ex ante.  In collaboration with University of Southern California and the Irish Department of Health.


For more details, contact us pemay@tcd.ie

The UP Study - Understanding Inequalities in Palliative Care for Older People and Providing for Future Need

(PI: Professor Karen Ryan; Funding: Health Service Executive)
The aim of this mixed-methods research is to generate evidence on:

  • current and future palliative care needs in Ireland;

  • the magnitude and drivers of financial hardship among the seriously-ill and their households;

  • what is required to effect change and deliver on equitable provision.

Drs Normand, Johnston and May are co-investigators on the study.  For more details, click here

The International Access, Rights and Empowerment Plus (IARE II) Study

(Trinity PI: Professor Charles Normand; Funding: The Atlantic Philanthropies)
This is a prospective cohort study analysing healthcare experience and utilisation among older adults in three cities: Dublin, Ireland; London, UK; and New York, US.  In collaboration with Cicely Saunders Institute, King’s College London, and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.


Drs Johnston and May are co-investigators on the study.  For more details, click here .

Community specialist palliative care (CSPC) provision in Ireland

(PI: Professor Charles Normand; Funding: The Research Collaborative in Quality and Patient Safety)
This study aims to examine three community palliative care services in North and South Dublin and in Sligo to try to understand where the differences between services lie, and to find out whether there are any advantages or disadvantages to the different kinds of services.
For more details, click here

Do we die as we live? Age, socioeconomic status, healthcare utilisation and pathways to death in Ireland

(PI: Professor Rose Anne Kenny; Funding: Health Research Board)


This project uses data from the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) linked to death certificate records administered by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) to examine three key issues:
1) How does mortality vary across socioeconomic groups in the over 50s in Ireland?
2) To what extent does better access to the healthcare system reduce mortality from amenable causes, i.e., causes of death that could be prevented with timely and effective healthcare?
3) What are the determinants of healthcare utilisation and costs at the end of life in Ireland?


Led by TILDA, Professor Normand and Dr May are co-investigators on the study.  For more details, click here

Population-based study of palliative care access, impact, and disparities

(PI: Dr J. Brian Cassel; Funding: American Cancer Society)


The primary goal of this study is to use population-level data to understand factors related to specialist palliative care use, and to explore three ways in which palliative care is related to outcomes including quality, disparities, and costs. A secondary goal is to demonstrate the feasibility and importance of acquiring data from disparate sources for population-based research on palliative care and outcomes for people with cancer. 
Led by Virginia Commonwealth University, Dr May is a co-investigator on the study. 

For more details, contact us pemay@tcd.ie