Our research on health systems focuses on how societies collectively meet health and social care needs.  Research areas include:

• Evidence-based practice, especially systematic reviews for the Cochrane Collaboration. Cochrane Ireland is hosted at our School
  • For further information please contact Professor Anne Matthews
• For further information on current research, recent projects, and prospects for collaboration in Health Systems Research, please contact Professor Anthony Staines.

Our research develops, examines and validates models of human disease, specifically for cancer, viral or immunological illness. It integrates patient sample analyses with state-of-the-art laboratory techniques to generate new treatment hypotheses for evaluation in human studies and clinical trials.

In virology, the focus is on increasing our understanding of human immune responses to viral infection, to design safer, more effective therapies and vaccines, including for Influenza, Human Parainfluenza Virus (HPIV), Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and Rhino Virus (RV).

We have funding from the Wellcome Trust, Health Research Board and Irish Research Council to investigate the role of anti-viral immune responses in the development or exacerbations of secondary conditions such as bacterial super-infections, asthma and autoimmune conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis. Understanding these mechanisms will enable us to design better therapeutic strategies to combat both the infections themselves and their associated syndromes.

In the cancer field, Dr Buchanan has an interest in understanding the underlying molecular mechanisms that lead to the development of castrate resistant prostate cancer. This work has involved a translational bedside to bench approach using prostate cancer patient samples from which to generate new targets of investigation. One current target includes the calcium channel CaV1.3, which was found to be significantly upregulated in prostate cancer patients. It is known that CaV1.3 can be targeted using existing drugs and is hoped that by understanding its role in prostate cancer these existing drugs can be repurposed to improve patient survival.

The Translation Bioscience laboratory found within the School of Nursing and Human Science houses both Dr Johnson and Dr Buchanan. This self-contained state of the art facility includes a number of key pieces of research equipment. This includes work for cell biology such as tissue culture and cell isolation, Molecular biology equipment for example western blot, PCR and FACS and also electrophysiology techniques such as patch clamp and calcium imaging.

For further information on current research, recent projects, and prospects for collaboration in Translational Biomedical Sciences, please contact Dr Patricia Johnson or Dr Paul Buchanan.

The understanding of health systems change in Europe needs to grasp, besides macro-level processes, the social relations of the people who work in and use healthcare services. At the School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health we adopt a broad-ranging but also fine-grained view of the challenges globalisation poses to health services in Europe by using anthropological lenses to examine:

• Health care privatisation
• The mobility of health care workers and health care seekers
• European governance
• Collective responses

The assumptions behind these studies is that living well with illness is a function of the fair distribution of access to health care services and of social rewards for care work in the society, and linked with questions of social justice and ethical issues in healthcare.

Dr Sabina Stan specialises in anthropological approaches to transnational migrant health care practices in the EU, healthcare reform and informal healthcare practices in Central and Eastern Europe. She has developed several international research projects in:

• Informatisation of Eastern European healthcare services.
• Managerialism in health care in Canada and Europe.
• European east-west migration.
• Transnational collective action responses to health care migration and privatisation.

Dr Mel Duffy is a founding member of the EROSS – Expressions, Research, Orientations: Sexuality Studies, a cross-faculty research group for DCU academics exploring developments and disparities in sexual cultures, sexual identities and gender role formation across the life span. Areas of investigation include all sexualities from cultural, ethical, historical, health and social foundations of sexuality.

For further information on current research, recent projects, and prospects for collaboration in Society, Health and Sexuality, please contact Dr Sabina Stan or Dr Mel Duffy.

With an estimated 44 million people worldwide living with dementia in 2013, and the number projected to rise to 135 million by 2050, the challenges of finding a cure, developing better treatments, and providing suitable supports, are among the most pressing public health concerns of our time.

In Ireland, there are around 42,000 people with dementia, a number expected to rise to around 140,000 by 2041. This could push the annual cost of dementia from €1.69 billion to over €5 billion at current prices. Life expectancy in Ireland is also rising – 83 years for women and 79 for men, both higher than the EU average. In addition, the number of older people is projected to double to 1 million by 2031.

Our research emphasises ‘ageing in place’ and ‘living well with dementia’ through an integrated approach to health and social care. A number of our projects take community development approaches to knowledge generation, blurring the boundaries between research and practice in an outcomes-driven approach, which provides practical advice to policy makers and service providers.

The projects in which the School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health is a partner are:

• Dem@care – a project for the timely diagnosis, assessment, maintenance and promotion of self-independence of people with dementia.
• Dementia Elevator - preparing communities and health systems to respond to people with dementia in a way that reduces excess disability.
• Actifcare – a European dementia research project that aims to analyse the pathways to care for people with dementia and their families, to better understand the reasons for inequalities.
• In-mindd – an initiative for long-term brain health and preventing or at least delaying the onset of dementia by combining social innovation, multifactorial modelling and clinical expertise.
• Posadem – a pan-European Erasmus project focused on developing a multidisciplinary Masters programme in dementia.
• CAPTAIN (Coach Assistant via Projected and Tangible Interface) - CAPTAIN transforms the living environment to support independent living for older adults.
• The National Dementia Registry Project - Developing a protype of a National Dementia registry for Ireland.

For further information on current research, recent projects, and prospects for collaborationin Dementia and Positive Ageing Research, please contact Dr Kate Irving.