\u201cGrowing up in Salthill, Co Galway, I hadn\u2019t fully decided on a career, but after the Leaving Cert, I had the option of choosing medicine. It happened to work out for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI chose to specialise in respiratory medicine because I liked the variety of carrying out interventional and diagnostic procedures, as well as acute and chronic disease management.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m not conducting bronchoscopies (camera into the airways) or lung function tests and sleep studies, you\u2019ll find me diagnosing and managing a whole range of conditions affecting the lungs and wider breathing system: Asthma, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder), sleep-related breathing disorders, pneumonia and other chest infections, and lung cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe prevalence of obstructive sleep apnoea is increasing alongside obesity \u2014 central obesity around the neck can narrow the upper airway. An estimated 0.5m people in Ireland are likely affected, most of whom haven\u2019t been diagnosed. It leads to disrupted night sleep, daytime somnolence, and, as a result, increased risk of accidents at work or on the road, and it affects relationships. It can also lead to an increased risk of high blood pressure, atrial fibrillation (abnormal heart rhythm) and memory impairment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can study the effects remotely now in patients\u2019 homes \u2014 previously, you had to be admitted overnight to a specialist sleep clinic.<\/p>\n
\n Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death in Ireland, although rates are improving with early diagnosis and rapid access cancer centres.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cCOPD \u2014 where the bronchial tubes get inflamed, causing airways to narrow \u2014 is a big problem, second only to lung cancer. It causes more deaths than any non-respiratory cancer. The majority of COPD cases are caused by smoking. Vaping is also a big problem. We are seeing cases of acute lung injury and asthma and other respiratory exacerbations from vaping.<\/p>\n
\u201cOutside of work, I\u2019m an avid tennis player and a longtime member of Galway Lawn Tennis Club. Growing up, I represented Connacht interprovincially, and I still play veterans\u2019 tennis. I work across three hospital sites in Dublin \u2014 Tallaght Hospital, Peamount Healthcare, and The Beacon Hospital \u2014 but when I\u2019m off, you could well find me at the Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club.<\/p>\n
The Irish Thoracic Society has just published Respiratory Health of the Nation 2026 to coincide with World Lung Day, Friday, September 25. View the report at: tinyurl.com\/4rd8dxut<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cGrowing up in Salthill, Co Galway, I hadn\u2019t fully decided on a career, but after the Leaving Cert,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[33970,24255,103,61,60],"class_list":["post-635559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health-body","tag-working-life","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}