Senior Researcher (Fellow)
January 2024 – Present
Discipline of Public Health and Primary Care, Institute of Population Health, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
I joined the Discipline of Public Health and Primary Care within 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).
Postdoctoral Health Service Researcher / Honorary Senior Researcher
January 2022 – January 2024, January 2024 – Present Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
The University of Oxford is among the World’s preeminent research institutions. I joined the renowned Health Behaviours team at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Science within the Medical Sciences Division of the University of Oxford in January 2022 as a Postdoctoral Health Service Researcher, leading several interventional studies in weight management, digital health, smoking cessation, mental health, and physical activity, predominantly in primary care settings.
I led the Adults Regulating Their weight Everyday with Mobile Internet Support (ARTEMIS) randomised controlled trial (n=1,607), assessing the effectiveness of a purpose built self-regulation based mobile application designed to promote weight loss among adults with obesity. This involved working effectively, efficiently, and pragmatically with several internal and external stakeholders such as external software developers, social media advertising consultants, clinical trials unit colleagues (including database programmers and data managers), patient and public involvement representatives, participants, and working collaboratively with both those under my immediate line management internally, including research assistants, PhD students, and junior postdoctoral researchers, as well as senior colleagues. I successfully led ARTEMIS from inception, app and database development, ethical approval, recruitment, final 6-month follow up, analyses and publication of results.
I led on co-designed trials and grant applications involving intervention development using the Person-Based Approach with patients and healthcare providers, and feasibility, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness assessment of smoking cessation, weight management, and physical activity, interventions initiated in primary care and settings for underserved populations e.g., physically inactive adults with health risk factors, adults with pre-existing multiple morbidities, financially vulnerable adults, and adults with serious mental illness. I was also engaged in several systematic (and scoping) reviews and meta-analysis and technical reports on interventions for disease and illness prevention and rehabilitation in these areas.
I worked on a large scale mixed-methods service evaluation examining the implementation of the UK Government’s national enhanced service incentive for weight management in primary care settings in England (NESIE) in collaboration with NHS England and the UK Department of Health and Social Care involving a series of evaluative work packages including interrupted time series analysis; cost-effectiveness analysis; conversation analysis of recorded consultations between general practitioners (GPs) and patients; thematic analysis of interviews with GPs and patients; and analysis of surveys regarding patient and GP experience.
I work on several projects in collaboration with the UK National Centre for Smoking Cessation Training (NCSCT), Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), and Clarion Housing (the largest provider of social housing in the United Kingdom) pioneering and evaluating a brief opportunistic smoking cessation intervention within money guidance services offered to social housing residents. This includes a scoping review, service evaluation, feasibility
study, and planned clinical trial examining the feasibility, acceptability, effectiveness, and cost effectiveness of brief opportunistic smoking cessation interventions in financial support settings such as social housing.
Postdoctoral Research Associate / Postdoctoral Research Fellow / Honorary Research Fellow
September 2019 – September 2021, September 2021- January 2022, January 2022-September 2023
The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland and Mercer’s Institute for Successful Ageing. St. James Hospital, Dublin 8, Ireland
The Irish Longitudinal stuDy on Ageing (TILDA) is a large-scale, nationally representative longitudinal study on ageing, which collects data on the health, economic, and social circumstances of over 8,500 community-dwelling adults, aged ≥ 50 years, in Ireland. In this regard, TILDA is one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies of its kind globally. Based in Trinity College Dublin, and St. James Hospital Dublin, I joined TILDA in September 2019, working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow before moving full-time to the University of Oxford in January 2022, and occupying an Honorary Research Fellowship position to September 2023.
My research in TILDA predominantly related to multi-dimensional health outcomes; and was both multi-faceted and multidisciplinary in nature; including for example, a project, funded by the Health Research Board, in collaboration with the Irish Department of Health, examining the association between lifetime exposure to fluoridated water sources, and multi-dimensional health outcomes; a global systematic Delphi process on the development of clinical guidelines for falls prevention and management in older adults; a systematic review and meta-analysis on vitamin D deficiency among adults in assisted living facilities; and projects on markers of frailty and biological ageing.
Additionally, I was engaged in various other health research activities throughout TILDA, including analysis and presentation of data for grants, publications, collaborative projects, and reports. As part of these additional research activities for example, I led a number of rapid response reports which aided the Health Service Executive and Department of Health in their initial response to the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic. I also coordinated andchaired the weekly TILDA seminar series.
Marie Sklodowska-Curie Early-Stage Research Fellow, Physical Activity and Nutritional INfluences In ageing (PANINI) project
September 2016 – September 2019
School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom
The PANINI project was a European Commission, Horizon 2020 funded programme; consisting of eight world-leading academic institutions, renowned for their work in ageing research, and 10 industrial partners also in this area. As a Research Fellow, I was responsible for primary data collection (both quantitative and qualitative) aimed at building a large, shared dataset of demographic, physical activity, nutrition, and genetics related data of older adults in Europe. I engaged in multi-disciplinary, international collaborations; with dissemination a core tenant of the project. I was responsible for administrative activities associated with the delivery of the project, managing my own doctoral research evaluating and interpreting complex scientific literature on health interventions in the form of systematic reviews, and randomised controlled trial study design, ethical approval, data collection and analyses, producing high quality publications, scientific abstracts, and presentations at national, and international conferences. I was also responsible for co-creation, planning and delivery of scientific and public engagement conferences to disseminate the findings of the project.
Dr Paul Doody PhD 