Cois Coiribe‘s ‘Day in the Life’ series showcases the diverse workings of our research and teaching life at University of Galway. We aim to spotlight researchers, academics, and students, sharing their experiences, challenges, and exciting discoveries!
This ‘Day in the Life’ feature focuses on Dr Elaine Toomey, Lecturer, College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at University of Galway.
I am a Lecturer in Evidence-Based Healthcare, and I am also the Programme Director of our new MSc in Evidence-Based Future Healthcare. I also have a research fellowship from the Health Research Board, which currently funds my exploration into the use of research evidence in healthcare decision-making, particularly in healthcare policy.
My research is predominantly in the area of how we move health research into policy and practice to improve outcomes for patients, the public, and society. To do this, I use insights from implementation science and behavioural science. I have a nerdy interest in health research methods, which feeds into this; I believe that better-quality research is more likely to have impact. I’m also a physiotherapist by background, so a lot of this work has been situated in the area of chronic disease prevention and creating healthier societies through physical activity and other behaviours.
While I would love to say that most mornings I’m up at 5am for a run, followed by a 30-minute meditation to start the day, usually I’m jolted awake by a toddler screaming for breakfast. Once that whirlwind is sorted, I usually grab a coffee at a lovely local café that does a mean flat white, then I head to work for the day. On Friday mornings, however, I do meet a friend at Blackrock around 7am for a swim-run-coffee, so that is my one attempt at an early morning!
I am Principal Investigator (PI) on the INTREPiD project, which (roughly!) stands for Integrating Research into Public Health Decision-making. I’m very lucky to work with a fantastic team of national and international collaborators on this project, including some wonderful patient and public involvement (PPI) advocates, all of whom keep me focused on what really matters. The fellowship essentially means protected time for research, and part of this involves a placement with the Department of Health, so I am currently working with them on some policy-related projects.
Other health research methodology projects I lead include a recently funded initiative from Evidence Synthesis Ireland on how we meaningfully engage patients, the role of public and other knowledge users in literature review-type work. I’m also leading a project to look at how we accurately test interventions or programmes that aim to change health behaviours, with the goal of applying research outcomes to real life challenges.
I am a chartered physiotherapist, and I’ve always been interested in societal healthcare. A major frustration for me has always been seeing how many challenges could be proactively addressed by preventing the onset of chronic diseases. These diseases contribute significantly to global mortality, accounting for 74% of all deaths worldwide and about 85% of deaths in the EU. They also have a huge negative impact on people’s quality of life and healthcare costs – for example, the annual spend on chronic disease in EU is estimated at €700 billion. If we could move the needle on that, the potential for impact is huge. Many solutions for addressing chronic diseases are often focused on the individual, telling people to eat less or exercise more. In my view, that really overlooks the bigger picture in terms of how our society is set up, including how healthcare systems and policies work to prevent and manage disease. This means that we need to take a more comprehensive approach to tackling it. This is where pulling from fields like implementation science, behavioural science, and health research methodology comes in.
Collaboration is essential! I remember a good friend and colleague, Professor Jeremy Grimshaw from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, once telling me that ‘health research is a team sport’, and I’ve never forgotten the sentiment. Improving the impact of health research is so complex. You really need to work with lots of different disciplines and strengths. I also believe that it makes work a lot more enjoyable, and I’m lucky to have so many wonderful colleagues and collaborators who I work closely with on a daily basis. I’m also fortunate to have had lots of opportunities to go and work with colleagues, particularly in Canada and Australia, where I have spent time as a visiting academic.
In Australia, for example, I worked with colleagues from the University of Newcastle, who also have dual appointments with the local health service (Hunter New England Health). While working with them, I experienced their involvement in research-clinical partnerships that allow them to co-design and deliver evidence-based chronic disease prevention and management in health services. In this way, the work completed simultaneously embeds research within all service delivery initiatives. It’s such a lovely example of maximising the impact of health research, and it has really inspired me in my work.
My research and teaching are very much interlinked. We have just set up a new MSc in Evidence-Based Future Healthcare, which is a fully online inter-professional postgraduate programme designed for busy healthcare workers seeking to improve the use of research and other forms of evidence in their daily work to improve healthcare and health systems.
We also have a particular focus on applying the learnings of this course to a modern healthcare landscape, including evolving fields such as digitisation of health, the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare settings, shared decision-making and health communication in the era of dis- and misinformation, and using new technology to find research and other forms of evidence more efficiently.
Since the MSc is an applied programme, I have the opportunity to integrate my research directly into its teachings, and I also have the joy of bringing in research collaborators as guest lecturers. We have students from a huge variety of backgrounds, including the nursing, medicine, allied health, social work, and MedTech sectors. The experience these students have brought into the classroom has been truly invaluable.
