Dr Paul Doody PhD

Senior Researcher (Fellow) at Trinity College Dublin

Honorary Senior Researcher at the University of Oxford

Biography

My expertise is in interventional health research and evidence synthesis, where I have a background in frailty and multimorbidity, clinical exercise physiology, health behaviour change (physical activity, smoking cessation, weight management), digital health, and disease and illness prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation.

I joined the Discipline of Public Health and Primary Care at the Institute of Population Health at Trinity College Dublin in January 2024 as a Senior Researcher (Fellow) working and leading on large randomised controlled trials in primary care and evidence synthesis for national clinical guideline development at the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), in collaboration with the Department of Health and Health Service Executive, as part of the Collaboration in Ireland for Clinical Effectiveness Reviews (HRB-CICER).

I have extensive experience and interest in interventional health research at all stages of the Medical Research Council’s framework for developing and evaluating complex interventions including systematic and scoping reviews (and meta-analyses), co-designed intervention and trial development, feasibility and pilot studies, large definitive randomised controlled trials of intervention effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, and evaluation of evidence-based national and international policy and guideline implementation. I have led and managed all phases of interventional and evidence synthesis research including successful grant writing, co-designed intervention and trial development, patient and public involvement, ethical and governance approvals, research site and participant recruitment, data collection, mixed methods analyses, screening, data extraction, quality assessment, narrative and quantitative syntheses, dissemination and public engagement, and overall project and personnel management in primary, secondary, and tertiary health setting in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Further I have experience and interest in the development and implementation evaluation of national and international clinical guidelines and epidemiological designs using genetic variation as a natural experiment to examine the causal effect of modifiable risk factors on health outcomes.

I have previously worked as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Early Stage Researcher at the School of Sport, Exercise, and Rehabilitation Sciences at University of Birmingham (2016-2019) on the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 funded Physical Activity Nutritional INfleunces In ageing (PANINI) project; a Postdoctoral Research Associate/Fellow on The Irish Longitudinal stuDy on Ageing (TILDA) within the School of Medicine at Trinity College Dublin (2019-2022), and as a Postdoctoral Health Service Researcher within the Health Behaviours team at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford (2022-2024), where I remain an Honorary Senior Researcher.

Recent publications

Doody P., Parkhouse T., Gao M., Haasova S., Livingstone‐Banks J., Cheeseman H., Aveyard P., and Lindson N. 2024. Opportunistic smoking cessation interventions for people accessing financial support settings: A scoping review. Addiction. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/add.16533

SuFen Z., Sinha D., Kirk M., Michalopoulou M., Hajizadeh A., Wren G., Doody P., Mackillop L., Smith R., Jebb S., Astbury N. 2024. Effectiveness of behavioural interventions incorporating motivational interviewing to increase physical activity: a systematic review and meta-analysis. British Medical Journal (BMJ). DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2023-078713

Preprint: Doody P.*, Wren G.*, Mounsey S., Haasova S., Stewart C., Haffner S., Jebb SA., Aveyard P. 2024 The Effectiveness and Safety of a Mobile Application Based Self-Regulation Intervention to Support Weight Loss Among Adults Living with Obesity: A Randomised Controlled Trial. SSRN. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4831840

Preprint: Gao M., Doody P,. Koutoukidis D., Yu Y., Aveyard P., Aveyard P., Dixon P. 2024. The causal role of adiposity in mental illness: A systematic review and meta-analysis of Mendelian randomization studies.M. MedRxiv. DOI: 10.1101/2024.04.19.24304800

Full publication record available here:

Employment history

Senior Researcher (Fellow)
Discipline of Public Health and Primary Care, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin January 2024-present

Postdoctoral Health Service Researcher / Honorary Senior Researcher Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford January 2022-February 2024, February 2024- Present

Postdoctoral Research Associate / Postdoctoral Research Fellow / Honorary Research Fellow The Irish Longitudinal stuDy on Ageing (TILDA) School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin September 2019-September 2021, September 2021-January 2022, January 2022-September 2023

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Early Stage Researcher Department of Sport, Exercise, and Rehabilitation Sciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham September 2016-September 2019

Education

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) University of Birmingham Thesis: The prevalence of frailty among geriatric hospital inpatients, and the feasibility of exercise interventions for geriatric hospital inpatients, and assisted living facility residents with frailty. 2021

Bachelor of Science (BSc) Honours in Sports Science and Health Dublin City University First-class honours (1.1) Thesis: An investigation into the acute effects of different modes of dynamic resistance training performed within a complex training protocol, on post-activation potentiation elicitation displayed in subsequent plyometric exercise performance. 2015

Research grants

NHS Greater Manchester (GM) Social Housing Stop Smoking Pilot Initiative. NHS Greater Manchester. March 2023. Co-investigator (30%) £200,000

Tobacco RIsk reDuction with E-cigarette Nicotine Therapy among adults with serious mental illness (TRIDENT). NIHR Programme Grant for Applied Research. September 2023. Co-investigator (30%) £2,143,616

Smoking cessation Advice for financially Vulnerable Individuals accessiNG financial Support
(SAVINGS). NIHR Public Health Research Programme Grant. July 2024.
Co-investigator (15%) £2,316,077

Professional Training and Development

PRoject management IN Controlled Environments (PRINCE2) Foundation and Practitioner
Oxford College of Management, United Kingdom
December 2023-January 2024

Applied Cost Effectiveness Analysis
University of Oxford, United Kingdom
December 2023

Very Brief Advice (VBA) training
National Centre for Smoking Cessation Training
January 2023

Contact