Our panel will speak to the evidence around the widening gap in health inequalities and the key social and commercial drivers that are negatively impacting health outcomes.  The session will address the challenges and propose solutions that require a whole of Government approach.

Dr Anne Dee is a Consultant in Public Health Medicine and works in the Department of Health in the HSE Mid-West Region since 2010. Prior to 2010 she worked in a number of areas including General Practice , Emergency Medicine as well as working in a Leprosy Hospital in Nepal. Dr Dee is Chair of the IMO Public Health Committee and incoming President of the Irish Medical Organisation and has special interest in the social determinants of health and health economics

Professor Mark Bellis is Director of Health Research and Innovation and Professor of Public Health and Behavioural Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. Mark has established and led two World Health Organisation Collaborating Centres (in Violence Prevention and in Investment for Health and Well-being).

Mark undertakes national and international research and development in fields including Adverse Childhood Experiences, violence prevention, health economics and commerce, alcohol, drugs, sexual health, and public health history. His work spans original research studies, systematic reviews, and policy implementation. Professor Bellis is a registered Consultant in Public Health in the UK National Health Service and in 2009 was awarded an OBE for services to healthcare

Brigid Quilligan  is a Traveller woman from Killarney. She is a mother of one and the eldest of a family of 11. She has been involved in the Community and Voluntary Sector since 1990 and has worked in the sector on a local, regional and national level. She is currently the Project Manager of Kerry Traveller Health CDP. 

Brigid was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from University College Cork in 2017 in recognition of her contribution to the rights of Traveller women, and on her work on the Irish States' recognition of Traveller Ethnicity. Brigid holds qualifications in Youth and Community Work, Employment Law, and Business, Social Enterprise and Community Work.

Dr Norah Campbell is an Associate Professor in Trinity Business School, and a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin. Her research is in the commercial determinants of health: measuring the ways business activities - subsidies, taxation, lobbying, marketing, product design and public relations - can impact the population's health. She is especially interested in where the problem of over-consumption ends and the problem of over-production begins

This session will examine how technology has enabled the widespread availability of pornography and how this is leading to a rise in sexual and gender based violence by distorting perceptions of consent, coercion and exploitation.

Ruth Breslin is Director of The Sexual Exploitation Research and Policy Institute (The SERP Institute, Ireland). Ruth has over twenty-five years of research experience in both NGO and academic settings in Dublin, London and New York.  She has an MSc in Social Research Methods (Social Policy) from the London School of Economics and Political Science.  The focus of Ruth’s work has been efforts to tackle and prevent violence against women and girls, and she has developed particular expertise in research and policy development on issues of commercial sexual exploitation.

Ruth is regularly called upon to input into the development of evidence-based policy, legislation and practice in this regard, in both Ireland and internationally. Ruth joined the SERP research programme in University College Dublin in 2018 and is now leading the development of the newly independent SERP Institute and the delivery of its strategic plan

Eoghan currently works as a secondary school teacher and assistant principal at Temple Carrig Secondary School where he has taught for the last eight years. He has over ten years previous experience as a youth worker, working in the most marginalised communities in the east inner cities of both Dublin and Galway. He has studied in UCD, NUIG and TCD, completing master’s degrees in Drama and Theatre Studies, International Human Rights Law, and Education.

Eoghan is a member of with Online Health Task Force and serves as a director on the board of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, he writes as a columnist for TheJournal.ie, he continues to campaign for the online protection of children and adolescents, particularly with regards the ownership of smartphones by children and the subsequent related need for robust legislation as well as digital media, gender-based violence and porn literacy-based education programmes. He is the co-author of the My Wellbeing Journey series of textbooks for the new SPHE Curriculum at both Junior and Senior Cycle and is currently completing a further master’s degree in Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapy with the aim of specializing in the area of child and adolescent psychotherapy.

Dr. Madeleine Ní Dhálaigh, is a native of East Galway and graduated UCD in 1996. She travelled back West after interning in St Vincent’s University hospital to join the Galway GP scheme in 1997.

She is a GP Partner in a group practice Castlerea, Co. Roscommon and is  a member of IMO GP committee. Dr Ní Dhálaigh, is a trainer with the Western GP training scheme, chairperson of National Association of  Trainers In General Practice, a member of START doctors group and a new member of midlands Interagency Model Responding to Domestic Homicide In Rural Ireland. 

It is to her late mother Dr Madeleine Khare-Daly, an Indian immigrant who provided GP care to patients in rural east Galway from the late 60s through to the 2000s, to whom she attributes her keen interest in advocacy for women’s sexual and reproductive rights, safety and education.

Her free time is filled with family time and looking after her hens, donkey, pony, retired sports horses, dogs and cat. 

In this session we look at the changing landscape of mental health services and legislation and the gaps in services for patients with severe and enduring mental illness.

Professor Matthew Sadlier, is a graduate of UCD and after completing training in General Practice training, he went on to complete higher specialist training in both General Adult Psychiatry and Psychiatry of Old Age. He is a former president (2013-2014) of the Irish Medical Organisation and current Chair of the IMO Consultant Committee. Currently he is a consultant in Old Age Liaison Psychiatry as well as being Clinical Director of General Adult and Old Age Psychiatry in Dublin North City

Dr. Lorcan Martin is Consultant in General Adult Psychiatry with Longford/Westmeath Mental Health Services. He trained in Trinity College and with the Eastern Health Board as was. His special area of interest is greater integration of mental health services into the community and he has been instrumental in developing many new initiatives in this regard including a Primary Care Liaison Service, a service for deaf clients, an ongoing public mental health awareness programme and a consultative group so that service users/carers may be involved in service development. He has presented these projects and others at a number of international conferences.

He has also been involved in training programmes in the area of mental health for a number of statutory and voluntary agencies, and also has a particular interest in the clinical training and examination of Non-Consultant Hospital Doctors working in psychiatry. He has served as Director of Professional Competence and Vice-President of the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland and has been President since January 2023

Dr. Sarah O’ Dwyer is a dual qualified General Adult and Old Age Psychiatrist who works in both specialities. She is a member of the Irish College of Psychiatrist and a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrist in the UK. She is a senior clinical lecture in Trinity College Dublin and a Medical Visitor to the High Court with a special interest in complex capacity assessments.

She is the  clinical lead for the Special Care Unit in St. Patrick’s University Hospital where she cares for the majority of detained patients admitted to the hospital and those presenting with severe enduring mental illness with more acute risk profiles.  She is also the clinical lead for the psychosis programme run within the hospital for patients with psychotic disorders. Her current interests include capacity and shared decision making in treatment in major mental illness, along with management of metabolic disorder and obesity in patients with major mental disorders. She was part of the research team for the recently published National Clinical Practice Guidelines for Management of Obesity in Ireland and lead author in the chapter of Mental Health Management in Obesity.

Speaker: Dr John Duddy, Consultant Neurosurgeon, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital and former IMO President

John Duddy is a Consultant Neurosurgeon at Mater Misericordiae University Hospital. A medical graduate of UCC, he completed Higher Specialist Training in Neurosurgery in Ireland. He then went on to complete Fellowship training in Paediatric Neurosurgery at Alder Hey Children's Hospital, and Spinal Surgery at The Walton Centre, both in Liverpool. His clinical interests are in cranial and spinal trauma, minimally invasive spine surgery, and degenerative spine disease. He is also a faculty member and examiner for the Human Factors in Patient Safety programme for surgical trainees at RCSI. John has served in many roles for the IMO, including Council member, NCHD Committee Chair, Vice-President and President. He is currently a member of the IMO Consultant Committee.

Dr Lisa Cunningham, Consultant in Emergency Medicine

Dr Lisa Cunningham is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine and a Prehospital Helicopter Emergency Medical System (HEMS) Physician. She works as a Consultant in EM in Mayo University Hospital. She also works as a HEMS Physician at Lincs and Notts Air Ambulance (LNAA) in the UK. Dr Cunningham is an established, fellowship trained, experienced, prehospital physician, working in a multidisciplinary, well developed prehospital system, for 3 years

Prof Michael Barry, Consultant Clinical Pharmacologist, Clinical Director for the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics (NCPE)

Professor Michael Barry is a Consultant Clinical Pharmacologist and Head of the Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics at the University of Dublin, Trinity College. He is the clinical director of the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics (NCPE) which conducts pharmacoeconomic evaluations on medicines prior to reimbursement under the Community Drugs schemes in Ireland. He is Past-President (2010-2011) of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). He was a board member of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) and is a member of a number of National Committees on pricing and reimbursement of medicines. Prof. Barry chairs the New Drugs Committee and the Medication Safety Committee at St. James's Hospital, Dublin.

In 2013 he was appointed Clinical Lead for the HSE Medicines Management Programme. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland and is a specialty trainer for Pharmacology & Therapeutics. His research areas include the cost-effectiveness of high cost drugs including chemotherapeutic agents and biologic drugs, pricing and reimbursement and performance based risk sharing schemes. He has published widely on the cost-effectiveness of medicines in the Irish healthcare setting

Dr Anna Beug, GP and Assistant Director, North Dublin City GP Training Scheme

Dr Anna Beug is from Cork and has been a GP in Dublin’s south inner city for 23 years. She is  a medical educator with a special interest in Child and Adolescent mental health,  communication skills and narrative practice. She is a clinical senior lecturer at Trinity college Dublin. She is a  GP trainer and an assistant programme director on the North Dublin GP training scheme. She has hosted a community mental health fellowship and  has taught extensively at undergraduate and postgraduate level in Ireland and internationally